[Luis Gonzalez]

We pray for one last landing
On the globe that gave us birth;
Let us rest our eyes on the friendly skies
And the cool, green hills of Earth.

[Luis Gonzalez]

You introduced me to this poem.

[Bahbah]

That's beautiful, Luis. God is welcoming them home. What a terrible loss.

[Fiddlstix]

Thank you Luis

God Bless

[Salgak]

Here's a toast to seven more heroes, who died pushing back the boundaries of our Final Frontier. . . .

Excuse me, I have to go off and cry now. . .

[BohDaThone]

When I was in high school, I read "Green Hills," and thought about doing it in a poetry-reading contest in a local speech festival. However, I needed 5 minutes of total material, so I wrote Heinlein, asking if he had written any other space poetry. He replied promptly, on a postcard, saying no. That card is still a prized possession, and the quotation now is very fitting. Thanks.

[tallhappy]

There was a thread a few days ago about the first shuttle explosion. I meant to respond and say, "shut up!". I remember very well that day and it was not 17 years ago. Impossible, it was just a little bit ago. No way was it 17 years.

It got me to thinking. In general I don't think we pay all that much attention to the shuttle anymore.

Also, there's been no mishap for 17 years, which is good.

But it also got me thinking how in 17 years we are using the same technology. There's been no progress in space exploration or exploitation.

And just now I awake and see the sign of something very bad -- all channels have the same thing.

"Space shuttle loses communication" -- what are they talking about? What's this "loses communication while landing"? Where is it? But I figure it out. It burned up like a meteor. A long trail of smoke is all that's left. It's on all TV channels and it is gripping.

It's a sad day.

[mfulstone]

As we pray, let us also remember the crew that is on board the ISS at this time.

[The Iguana]

Nice touch.

One of my favorite Heinlein stories.

[dts32041]

HIGH FLIGHT

by

John Gillespie Magee, Jr.

Oh, I have slipped the surly bounds of earth

And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;

Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth

Of sun-split clouds - and done a thousand things

You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung

High in the sunlit silence.  Hovering there,

I've chased the shouting wind along , and flung

My eager craft through footless halls of air.

Up, up the long delirious, burning blue

I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace

Where never lark or even eagle flew.

And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod

The high untrespassed sanctity of space,

Put out my hand and touched the face of God.

---

[Stopislamnow]

Astronauts.

This word says so much and embodies the very best aspects of Mankind.

Adventurers
Pioneers
Explorers
Heros

They embody the American Spirit. May God bless them and thier families and friends in this difficult time. And God Bless America.

From time immemorial, man has gazed upon, longed for, and sought the stars. These brave souls, though they have fallen succeeded in thier quest. Never forget that they strived for and achieved thier dream, finding the stars in thier long, bright, quiet beauty and dwelt among them for a time before thier fall.

[IncPen]

Like the poem "Flanders Fields"...

Thank you for posting this.

[McGavin999]

May God hold the crew in the palm of his hand and may He comfort those left behind. This makes me weep Luis.

[Jonah Hex]

Thank you, Luis.

May God grant them His loving Grace, and may He provide his Comfort to us all....

[Theophilus]

Eternal Father, Strong To Save,
Whose Arm Hath Bound The Restless Wave.
Who Bidd’st The Mighty Ocean Deep
It’s Own Appointed Limits Keep.
O Hear Us When We Cry To Thee
For Those In Peril On The Sea!

Lord Guard And Guide The Men Who Fly
Through The Great Spaces In The Sky.
Be With Them Always In The Air,
In Darkening Storms Or Sunlight Fair.
Oh, Hear Us When We Lift Our Prayer
For Those In Peril In The Air!

[ChemistCat]

Follow the link below and LISTEN to "A Fire In The Sky." Warning, you'll weep.

---

Prometheus, they say, brought God's fire down to man.
And we've caught it, tamed it, trained it since our history began.
Now we're going back to heaven just to look him in the eye,
and there's a thunder 'cross the land, and a fire in the sky.

Gagarin was the first, back in nineteen sixty-one,
When like Icarus, undaunted, he climbed to reach the sun.
And he knew he might not make it, for it's never hard to die.
But he lifted off the pad and rode a fire in the sky.

Yet a higher goal was calling, and we vowed we'd reach it soon.
And we gave ourselves a decade to put fire on the moon.
And Apollo told the world, we can do it if we try:
And there was one small step, and a fire in the sky.

Bridge:
I dreamed last night of a little boy's first spaceflight,
Turned into me, watching a black and white TV.
There was a fire in the sky, I'll remember until I die.
A fire in the sky...a fire in the sky!

Then two decades from Gagarin, twenty years to the day.
Came a shuttle named Columbia, to open up the way.
And they said she's just a truck, but she's a truck that's aiming high.
See her big jets burning, see her fire in the sky.

Yet the Gods do not give lightly of the powers they have made.
And with Challenger and seven, once again the price is paid.
Though a nation watched her falling, yet a world could only cry.
As they passed from us to glory, riding fire in the sky.

Now, the rest is up to us, and there's a future to be won.
We must turn our faces outward, we will do what must be done.
For no cradle lasts forever, every bird must learn to fly ---
And we're going to the stars, see our fire in the sky.

Yes, we're going to the stars, see our fire in the sky!
There's a fire in the sky, I'll remember until I die.
A fire in the sky, a fire in the sky!

Label: Prometheus Music
Credits: Song by Jordin Kare (bridge by Kristoph Klover.) Lead Vocals & Keyboard: Kristoph Klover. Bass: John Land. Drums: Curt Moore. Electric Guitar: Mark Ungar. Violin: Shira Kammen

---

http://artists.mp3s.com/artist_song/2475/2475506.html

---

[SCalGal]

Thank you, Luis.

[RippleFire]

BUMP

[weikel]

Hope they're okay.

[Aeronaut]

Thank you Luis.

[Sabertooth]

Thanks for this thread, Luis.

I'm struck, in this tragedy, that the Shuttle Columbia was carrying the first Israeli astronaut, a hero of the 1981 bombing of the Osirak nuclear reactor in Iraq, and the debris came down over Palestine, Texas. All on the eve of another war in the Mideast, which will involve the U.S., Israel, Iraq, and Palestine.

No human design could lay beneath this. There is much to mourn and ponder this morning.