Posted on 02/01/2003 7:17:13 AM PST by Luis Gonzalez
but rather openings in heaven where the love of our lost ones pours through and shines down upon us to let us know they are happy. Eskimo Legend |
Lit up with anticipation
We arrive at the launching site
The sky is still dark, nearing dawn
On the Florida coastline
Circling choppers slash the night
With roving searchlight beams
This magic day when super-science
Mingles with the bright stuff of dreams
Floodlit in the hazy distance
The star of this unearthly show
Venting vapours, like the breath
Of a sleeping white dragon
Crackling speakers, voices tense
Resume the final count
All systems check, T minus nine
As the sun and the drama start to mount
The air is charged
A humid, motionless mass
The crowds and the cameras,
The cars full of spectators pass
Excitement so thick you could cut it with a knife
Technology...high, on the leading edge of life
The earth beneath us starts to tremble
With the spreading of a low black cloud
A thunderous roar shakes the air
Like the whole world exploding
Scorching blast of golden fire
As it slowly leaves the ground
Tears away with a mighty force
The air is shattered by the awesome sound
Like a pillar of cloud
The smoke lingers high in the air
In fascination
With the eyes of the world
We stare...
Columbia now thirty nine nautical miles altitude, twenty miles downrange...
Young and Crippen really moving now, velocity sixty two hundred feet per second.
What a view, what a view!
Glad you're enjoying it...
I spent the entire morning on the long 2500+ post thread as it provided moment by moment accounts, surmisings, tributes.
But this is the thread that let me feel my feelings.
Thank you so much Luis for the poetry, your writings and the tributes. I was finally done in and wept when I read your post with the photo and the words from our President's address this morning - "they did not make it back to earth, but they made it home." Thanks to KBZod, ChemistCat, weikel, and Optimist for the poetry you shared. Each was very moving and captured another facet of the heavens and those who explore there. B-Chan, the poster is stunning and memorable . I liked the flags. Theophilus, the listing of all the many variations of the "Naval" Hymn was the first I had ever seen. I was an AF brat and sang the Air Force version every Sunday growing up.
Someday, when I think back on what I was doing on the day the Columbia dissolved into space, I'll remember that I was at Free Republic with the dear people I've met here.
Nothing more to add to what you've all said so well.
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