Message From the NASA Administrator - Day of Remembrance

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

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)
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> Subject: Message From the Administrator - Day of Remembrance
> From: NASA_INC <NASA_INC () hq nasa gov>
> Sender: owner-headquarters () spinoza public hq nasa gov
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>
> Point of Contact: Dean Acosta, Public Affairs, (202) 358-1400
> -------------------------------------------------------
>
> NASA's Day of Remembrance
>
> Today 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  
> Arlington
> National 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 awful
> consequences of our flaws.
>       It has always been this way. We celebrate Lindbergh as the  
> first to fly
> non-stop from New York to Paris. But he wasn't the first to try. Chuck
> Yeager made history as the pilot who broke the "sound barrier." He  
> wasn't
> the first to try, either. School children are taught of Magellan's
> pioneering 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 on
> our consciousness. These are mistakes that will not be made again.
>
> But as we remember those who have fallen, we must also honor them by
> acknowledging, humbly, that they cannot be the last. We have not  
> made our
> last mistake in learning the art and science of spaceflight. There are
> places 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 long
> time. 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
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