3 PM Prayers for the Crew of Columbia, their families, and the USA

Heavenly Father, we come to you in much sorrow over those who have been lost to this terrible tragedy. We ask for mercy on the souls of the departed.

Our hearts are heavy and hurting for the loved ones who are left behind. Please bring them comfort during these difficult days, and give them the strength to continue on.

Bless them and be merciful most Holy God. I ask this in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen!

I would have been about 38 miles away from you, but straight up with no barrier to sound in between. I'm still wondering about the amount of sound associated with what they're now saying would have been a small amount of fuel remaining.

Wonder if they had other kinds of gases in tanks/cylinders on board?

In any case, condolences to the families.

Amen.

"High Flight"

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds 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 hundred things
You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring 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 wind-swept 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.

John Gillespie Magee, Jr.

High Flight was composed by Pilot Officer John Gillespie Magee, Jr., an American serving with the Royal Canadian Air Force. He was born in Shanghai, China in 1922, the son of missionary parents, Reverend and Mrs. John Gillespie Magee; his father was an American and his mother was originally a British citizen.

He came to the U.S. in 1939 and earned a scholarship to Yale, but in September 1940 he enlisted in the RCAF and was graduated as a pilot. He was sent to England for combat duty in July 1941.

In August or September 1941, Pilot Officer Magee composed High Flight and sent a copy to his parents. Several months later, on December 11, 1941 his Spitfire collided with another plane over England and Magee, only 19 years of age, crashed to his death.

His remains are buried in the churchyard cemetery at Scopwick, Lincolnshire.

http://www.wpafb.af.mil/museum/history/prewwii/jgm.htm

[i]While there add a prayer for the soldiers lost in the Blackhawk crash. I hope our military gets this much coverage and finds out why we have so much trouble with our military equiptment also.[/i]

Thanks for the reminder of the recent Black Hawk crash.

As a Canadian who supports the War on Terror, I also remember the Friendly Fire accident and pray for all the soldiers and families who've been affected - both my countrymen and the Americans.

7 children lost a parent today and 7 died in this disaster.

Prayers go out to God for these lives lost and those left behind.

....

Here are brief profiles of the crew of Space Shuttle Columbia.

Shuttle Commander Rick Douglas Husband, a U.S. Air Force colonel and former test pilot, was on his second shuttle mission, having flown previously in 1999 aboard shuttle Discovery.

Born July 12, 1957, in Amarillo, Texas, and married with two children, Husband joined the astronaut program in 1994 and worked as chief of safety for NASA's Astronaut Office.

His previous shuttle voyage was a 10-day mission that docked with the International Space Station and delivered supplies in preparation for the arrival of the first crew to live aboard the orbiting outpost.

He piloted that flight, logging 235 hours, 13 minutes in space.

---

Shuttle Pilot William C. McCool, a U.S. Navy commander, was on his first shuttle voyage aboard Columbia, but had wide experience as a military aircraft pilot with more than 2,800 hours of flight experience in 24 aircraft.

A test pilot at the Strike Aircraft Test Directorate at Patuxent River, Maryland, McCool managed projects ranging from airframe fatigue life studies to avionics upgrades. He acted as test pilot of the EA-6B Prowler, a radar-jamming warplane.

His primary efforts, however, were dedicated to dedicated to flight test of the Advanced Capability (ADVCAP) EA-6B.

Married, McCool was born Sept. 23, 1961, in San Diego, California.

---

Shuttle Payload Commander Michael Anderson, a U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel, was responsible for science hardware aboard Columbia.

Anderson joined the astronaut corps in 1994 and previously flew aboard shuttle Endeavour in 1998, the eighth docking mission between a space shuttle and the Soviet-made Mir spacecraft. Anderson logged over 211 hours in space on that voyage.

Born in Plattsburgh, New York, on Dec. 25, 1959, Anderson counted Spokane, Washington, as his hometown. He was married.

---

Ilan Ramon, an Israeli Air Force colonel, was the first Israeli to go into space. At 48, he was a veteran of Israel's Yom Kippur War and the son of a Holocaust survivor from the Auschwitz concentration camp. In memory of family members who died under Nazi rule during the World War II, Ramon took with him a pencil drawing by a Czech Jewish boy.

Ramon logged more than 3,000 flight hours on the Israeli A-4, Mirage III-C, and F-4, and more than 1,000 flight hours on the F-16.

Selected by NASA as a payload specialist in 1997, Ramon began training in July 1998. Born June 20, 1954, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Ramon was married with four children.

---

Laurel Blair, a U.S. Navy commander and a physician, was on her first NASA shuttle voyage.

An avid scuba diver, Blair did active duty training with the Diving Medicine Department at the Naval Experimental Diving Unit during medical school. During a later assignment in Scotland, she dove with U.S. Navy divers and Naval Special Warfare Unit Two Seals and performed numerous medical evacuations from U.S. submarines. She was designated a Naval Submarine Medical Office and Diving Medical Officer. and a Naval Flight Surgeon.

Selected for the astronaut corps in 1996, Clark was married with one child. She was born in Iowa but called Racine, Wisconsin, her hometown. Her birth date was not immediately available.

---

David Brown, a U.S. Navy captain and surgeon, was a gymnast who performed as an acrobat, unicyclist and stilt walker while attending college.

Brown joined the Navy after his medical internship, and after completing flight surgeon training in 1984, became director of medical services at the Navy Branch Hospital in Adak, Alaska.

Brown logged more than 2,700 flight hours with 1,700 in high performance military aircraft. The Columbia mission was his first space flight. He joined the astronaut program in 1996.

Born April 16, 1956, in Arlington, Virginia, Brown was unmarried.

---

Kalpana Chawla, an aerospace engineer and commercial pilot, was on her second space shuttle flight, having been a mission specialist in 1996, logging more than 376 hours in space.

Born in Karnal, India, she studied in the United States, and received her doctorate from the University of Colorado.

She started working for NASA in 1988, studying powered-lift computational fluid dynamics. Her research concentrated on simulation of complex air flows encountered around aircraft.

Chawla joined the astronaut program in 1994.

ap

Amen.

In honor of the Columbia astronauts, would someone please post the official NASA picture of them, on this and every thread about this tragedy? Their faces deserve to be remembered. Thanks...

A prayer for those affected by the shuttle tragedy

...More info on shuttle tragedy

May their souls and all the souls of the faithful departed through the mercy of God rest in peace. Amen.

Thank you for this prayer thread.

I add my fervent AMEN.

May they all be at peace on the Loving Arms of their Creator. And may their grieving families and friends be comforted by the knowledge that each one of these brave explorers were aware of the risks yet did their work and loved being in space.

Part of the President's statement gives me some comfort:

"In the skies today we saw destruction and tragedy. Yet farther than we can see there is comfort and hope. In the words of the prophet Isaiah, "Lift your eyes and look to the heavens. Who created all these? He who brings out the starry hosts one by one and calls them each by name. Because of His great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing."

The same Creator who names the stars also knows the names of the seven souls we mourn today. The crew of the shuttle Columbia did not return safely to Earth; yet we can pray that all are safely home.

May God bless the grieving families, and may God continue to bless America."

Oh, Luis, thank you.

Welcome, Ysoitanly. Although it's a tragic day, the "family" is glad you're here.

Prayers sent for the families of those who have perished in the Columbia disaster.

ping

This prayer appeared on other threads. It says what is in a lot or our hearts right now. It was written by our Texokie, I hope she doesn't mind my putting it here.

Our Beloved Heavenly Father, Our Lord Christ Jesus,

We come before you now and beseech you to please care for the souls of these precious ones in our space program who gave their lives in the quest for greater knowledge of the Cosmos which you created. Take these precious souls in your arms and place them gently into the highest places in your Mansion that you possibly can. Heal their souls of any wounds which the trauma may have caused them. Comfort their souls as they leave behind their friends and families.

Hold their friends and families close to your heart and give them legions of comfort angels. Help them to find strength in you during this period of intense raw pain. Help their families gracefully adjust to the changes in dynamics which occur when we lose dear ones. Protect these ones who are very much in the public eye. Let them know that we CARE about them. Guide the media personnel in their efforts to gain stories for those of us who do care. Let them be sensitive to the pain of these precious souls who have lost so much while those stories are gathered.

Father, we pray for the people in the space program who were involved in this mission. We ask that you will guide them in finding out the root cause/s so that any future reoccurence may never happen again. We further ask that you will enlighten people who find debris as to the importance of it being turned in to authorities. One just never knows which little bit might spell the key for us to understand the disaster. Please Lord, if there is such a piece or pieces, please let them be found and turned in by unselfish citizens.

Father, we ask for your mercy and care not only for the souls involved in this national tragedy, but for any and all who have given their lives wearing our military uniforms. We have had recent helicopter crashes and other incidents where we have lost soldiers. Father, we include them and their families in our prayers. We continue to pray for all of our military who are actively serving in any capacity, and their families.

Father, guide all of our leaders in their decisions which are needing to be made. Especially give our President grace and wisdom in his decisions to deploy our forces. We pray and trust that whenever he bows his head in prayer, which he has indicated he does do, that he will have an extraordinary ablility to hear Your words and guidance. We support him and lift him up in our prayers and are grateful that you have allowed us to have in office one who does sincerely believe and depend upon the arm of the Lord. We would ask that each and every person in office or who is in a leadership and decision-making capacity also have an extraordinary ability to hear heavenly guidance when they bow their heads in prayer. We are in a very crucial time in many levels and many fronts, Lord, and we have never needed your intercession more. Grant us that intercession, our Father! Grant us the vision as a united people that we need in order to allow your own divine plan for our nation and civilization to be made manifest.

Father, we place all of this upon the altar and we give gratitude and praise to you that you do indeed hear and answer our prayers. We ask that all of our prayers will be adjusted according to thy will, for we do not wish to pray amiss in any way whatsoever. In the name of the Everlasing Word,

Amen

~written by TEXOKIE Feb 1, 2003~

Welcome ysoitanly. Glad you joined us here today.

"The same Creator who names the stars also knows the names of the seven souls we mourn today. The crew of the shuttle Columbia did not return safely to Earth but we can pray they are safely home."

-----President Bush, February 1st 2003

As soon as I heard this story this morning, I was reminded of a quote from Robert A. Heinlein, a 4th verse to the "Traveler's Hymn." I cannot recall the entire verse (perhaps someone here can help me out?) but it ended with the couplet:

"Lord we pray Thee, lend Thy grace,
To those who venture into Space."

VietVet
(Who is having some trouble typing, due to the difficulty of seeing the keys through the tears in his eyes)