Posted on 02/02/2003 5:06:03 AM PST by knighthawk
TOKYO: Japan's space agency on Sunday offered its condolences and support to the United States after the shuttle Columbia disintegrated over Texas, killing all seven astronauts aboard.
"We feel deep regret at what happened," Shuichiro Yamanouchi, president of the National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA) said in a statement.
"We offer our condolences to the families of the seven astronauts who died and to the United States," he said.
The agency said it was establishing a task force to gather information about the accident, and that it would likely have a great impact on Japan's plans to construct its "Kibo" experiment module on the International Space Station (ISS).
"I imagine this will have a large effect," Nasda Executive Director Koji Yamamoto told an early morning news conference.
He also said the agency was preparing to send experts to help with the investigation into the cause of Columbia's break-up if needed. "We will gladly cooperate," he said.
The planned March 1 launch of shuttle Atlantis looked likely to be delayed after Nasa halted all space shuttle flights pending an investigation into the Columbia disaster, Nasda said.
Soichi Noguchi, 37, was to have been the fifth Japanese astronaut to join a shuttle mission aboard Atlantis, for a Japanese national's eighth flight.
Two Japanese science projects were lost with the Columbia, including one experiment into the growth of protein crystals and another into the swimming pattern of killifish after their eggs were hatched in space.
=/ That is a more tragic statement for me.
I was merely stating a fact about funding, or lack thereof. The space shuttle system was going to be replaced by the X33, and then the XV - but both were canned by budget considerations.
Indeed it will...and it should. There could be no finer tribute to our fallen than if we learn from the mistakes made and press forward to the future. Personally I want to know why the change was made from the old foam (which as I understand worked just fine) to the new freon-free stuff. Seems to me such a limited application could hardly have any noticeable environmental effect...other than a "Green" message.
Lots of questions need to be answered, and those answers will generate more questions and debate. This is going to take a LONG time.
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