A new commitment to space
By Senator Bill Nelson
February 2, 2003
The Washington Post
Once again we are tragically reminded of the perils of space exploration.
Gus Grissom understood that peril 36 years ago when -- shortly before he and two fellow astronauts died in the Apollo fire -- he said: "The conquest of space is worth the risk of life."
New Hampshire schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe and the six astronauts aboard the ill-fated Challenger space shuttle understood and accepted the risk, too. Like Grissom, McAuliffe and the eight other earlier casualties of our nation's space program, the seven astronauts who died over Texas yesterday were willing to accept that risk in exchange for the great benefits their brave exploration of the heavens could achieve for all mankind.
Like so many other Americans, I'll never forget seeing the Challenger launch into the clear blue Florida sky on Jan. 28, 1986. Just 10 days earlier, as chairman of the House space subcommittee, I had returned from six days on the 24th flight of the space shuttle Columbia. Staff members and I gathered around the television in my Washington office, and I was explaining each step of the launch sequence when the terrible explosion occurred.
Yesterday morning, the skies were equally blue as Columbia soared 200,000 feet over Texas toward its scheduled landing at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida after 16 days of scientific research in space.
It will be a while before we know what caused the sudden, horrific ending of its flight and the tragic deaths of the six Americans and the first Israeli astronaut aboard.
Today, our hearts and prayers go out to their loved ones left behind. And as we once again extend our respect and gratitude to the families of fallen astronauts, we must rededicate ourselves to making future exploration of this final frontier as safe as humanly possible.
We already can thank the space program for spawning more than 1,300 technological advances -- including CAT scans, kidney dialysis machines and the artificial heart.
Now, with the International Space Station, continued research may one day lead to a cure for cancer and many other findings on behalf of the good life here on Earth.
That is the cause for which 17 space explorers have now given their lives. That is the cause for which all our astronauts have risked their lives for nearly four decades now. And that is the cause that took this nation to the moon in 1969.
Our next destination can still be Mars, but we've got to put a higher priority on ensuring the safety of those who might journey there. Our nation recommitted itself to making manned space flight as safe as possible after the Challenger explosion. But these efforts have lagged amid the budget pressures and cuts of recent years. Now, in the wake of this new tragedy, we need to make a new commitment. And we must live up to it.
As Gus Grissom said, the conquest of space is worth it.
The writer, a Democratic senator from Florida, is ranking minority member of the Armed Services subcommittee on strategic forces, whose jurisdiction includes space issues.
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