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Message From the NASA Administrator - Day of Remembrance
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Thu, 26 Jan 2006 16:34:39 -0500
Begin forwarded message: From: Tice DeYoung <ticed () bellatlantic net> Date: January 26, 2006 1:59:30 PM EST To: dave () farber net Cc: ticed () bellatlantic net Subject: Fwd: Message From the Administrator - Day of Remembrance Dave,For IP, if you wish. This email message from the NASA Administrator to the NASA family is something that should be shared with others.
Tice
Date: Thu, 26 Jan 2006 09:27:29 -0500 (EST)X-Authentication-Warning: spinoza.public.hq.nasa.gov: majordom set sender to owner-headquarters using -fSubject: Message From the Administrator - Day of Remembrance From: NASA_INC <NASA_INC () hq nasa gov> Sender: owner-headquarters () spinoza public hq nasa govX-Proofpoint-Spam-Details: rule=notspam policy=default score=0 mlx=0 adultscore=74 adjust=0 reason=mlx engine=3.0.0-06011800 definitions=3.0.0-06012603Point of Contact: Dean Acosta, Public Affairs, (202) 358-1400 ------------------------------------------------------- NASA's Day of RemembranceToday we pause to remember the loss of our Apollo 1, Challenger and Columbia astronauts, and to honor their legacy. To this end, I will visit ArlingtonNational Cemetery to lay a wreath in their memory.Nearly fifty years into the space age, spaceflight remains the pinnacle of human challenge, an endeavor just barely possible with today's technology. We at NASA are privileged to be in the business of learning how to do it, to extend the frontier of the possible, and ultimately to make the possible routine. It is an enormously difficult enterprise, made more so by the fact that we are human beings, and flawed. The losses we commemorate today are a mute and terrible reminder of the sternness of the challenge, and of awfulconsequences of our flaws.It has always been this way. We celebrate Lindbergh as the first to flynon-stop from New York to Paris. But he wasn't the first to try. ChuckYeager made history as the pilot who broke the "sound barrier." He wasn'tthe first to try, either. School children are taught of Magellan'spioneering voyage around the world. But only one of his five ships and 18 of the roughly 250 original sailors completed the voyage. Magellan himself didn't make it back; he was killed in the Philippines. About half of the settlers who set out on the Oregon Trail, or for the California gold fields, didn't make it. Amelia Earhart didn't make it. Today is the day we remember,and honor, those of our own who didn't make it back.And how do we remember, and honor, them? No one has ever said it better than Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg: "It is for us, the living ... that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain." And just as we fly safely today because of the lessons learned from the loss of earlier generations of aviators, so also is spaceflight safer because of the losses we remember at this time of the year. The spacecraft fire hazards and the bolted hatch that killed the Apollo 1 crew will not kill another. The solid rocket booster that was responsible for the loss of Challenger is today the most reliable space transportation element we have. And the devastating effects of seemingly harmless debris upon Columbia are forever emblazoned onour consciousness. These are mistakes that will not be made again. But as we remember those who have fallen, we must also honor them byacknowledging, humbly, that they cannot be the last. We have not made ourlast mistake in learning the art and science of spaceflight. There areplaces in Arlington Cemetery, and elsewhere, waiting for others who have yet to pay the ultimate price for our human failings. We do not know who, or why, or when, but it will come. We pray, today, that it will be a very longtime. Let us on this Day of Remembrance honor our lost companions by resolving to make it so. Michael Griffin NASA Administrator --------------------------------------------------------- This notice is being transmitted by NASA INC in the Office of Public Affairs. For more information on NASA INC products and services, mailto:NASA_INC () hq nasa gov or visit the NASA INC Web page at http://insidenasa.nasa.gov/nasa_nas/ops/NASA_INC/index.html
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- Message From the NASA Administrator - Day of Remembrance David Farber (Jan 26)