Countdown: A Chilling 23 Yr Old Tribute To Columbia

Rush-Signals | 2-1-03 | Neil Peart

[My Favorite Headache]

Rush- Countdown
Signals
1982

Dedicated today to Space Shuttle Columbia 2003 as it was written for the first launch in 1981. RIP.

Dedicated with thanks to astronauts of Space Shuttle Columbia Young & Crippen and all the people of NASA for their inspiration and cooperation-Rush

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...

PUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICER(PAO)

- Columbia is now reaching precise window in space for main engine cutoff

Mark - 2 minutes, 40 seconds...Columbia now 39 nautical miles altitude,

42 nautical miles downrange...

CAPSULE COMMUNICATOR (CAPCOM)

- Columbia you're lookin' a little hot, and all your calls'll be a little early...

PAO

- Young and Crippen really moving out now velocity now reading sixty-two hundred feet per second

CREW

- What a view, what a view! CAPCOM

- Glad you're enjoying it CREW

- Jay, how does it all look? CAPCOM

- Columbia, Houston, er, we have forty seconds still... left; configure

LOS, you're looking good for an over the hill, we'll see you in Madrid.

And we enjoyed the music Bob, thank ya. CREW

- Ah, we enjoyed it, we just wanted to share something with ya

[My Favorite Headache]

This is the song "Countdown" from the Rush album Signals. I immediately thought of the first launch of Columbia that I went to in 1981. It was literally the only day of school I missed that year...but it was worth every second of it.

My mother lives right off Merritt Island and the Cape and Patrick AFB is right outside her door. This is tearing apart at the hearts of all Americans especially the Space community.

God Bless Them All

[stratman1969]

I was just thinking about this song and the video to it.

This is horrible. I remember watching the Columbia's first launch that Saturday morning in 1981 and then we watched the landing in my school a couple days later. (I was in sixth grade). Viewing this on the TV brings back the awful memories of 17 years ago when the Challenger exploded.

God Bless the families and our nation.

[My Favorite Headache]

Another Rush one that fits this as well:

Vapor Trail

Vapor Trail
Rush

Stratospheric traces of our transitory flight
Trails of condensation held
In narrow paths of white
The sun is turning black
The world is turning gray
All the stars fade from the night
The oceans drain away

Horizon to Horizon
Memory written on the wind
Fading away like an hourglass, grain by grain
Swept away like voices in a hurricane

In a vapor trail

Atmospheric phases make the transitory last
Vaporize the memories that freeze the fading past
Silence all the songbirds
Stilled by the killing frost
Forests burn to ashes
Everything is lost

Washed away like footprints in the rain

In a vapor trail

[jaz.357]

I put the CD on as soon as I saw the news. Ironically,we watched APOLLO 13 last night on DVD... HAIL COLUMBIA!

[My Favorite Headache]

Chilling

[jaz.357]

My Brother saw the SIGNALS tour. They closed the show with "Countdown" and had a video of the launch on a huge screen playing behind the band. He said the place shook like a real launch.

[Joe 6-pack]

Flying High
John Denver

Well, I guess that you probably know by now
I was one who wanted to fly
I wanted to ride on that arrow of fire right up into heaven
And I wanted to go for every man, every child, every mother of children
I wanted to carry the dreams of all people right up to the stars

And I prayed that I'd find an answer there
Or maybe I would find the song
Giving a voice to all of the hearts that can not be heard
And for all of the ones who live in fear
And all of those who stand apart
My being there would bring us a little step closer together

They were flying for me, they were flying for everyone
They were trying to see, a brighter day for each and everyone
They gave us their light, they gave us their spirit, and all they could be
They were flying for me

And I wanted to wish on the Milky Way and dance upon the falling star
I wanted to give myself, and free myself, enjoin myself with it all!
Given the chance to dream, it can be done
The promise of tomorrow is real
Children of spaceship Earth, the future belongs to us all

She was flying for me, she was flying for everyone
She was trying to see, a brighter day for each and everyone
She gave us her light, she gave us her spirit, and all she could be
She was flying for me

They were flying for me, they were flying for everyone
They were trying to see, a brighter day for each and everyone
They gave us their light, they gave us their spirit, and all they could be
They were flying for me

[CalvaryJohn]

Here's my tribute. I've had this song going in my head for at least a month, now, I suspect, prophetically. It's the theme song from the new Enterprise, "Faith of the Heart".http://scifi.myrealm.co.uk/audio/enterprise2.mp3

[ladyinred]

John Denver so hoped to go into space on one of the shuttles. Thanks for printing the lyrics to his song. Another great loss for us all.

[Huck]

I remember watching the early shuttle tests, when it used to piggy back on a big jetliner. Sad, sad day, but we will prevail, as we always do.

[Uncle Jaque]

Can anyone tell me the Home State of the Astronauts we lost this Morning with the Columbia? (Knowing that one was a Son of Israel).

As I watched in helpless sorrow the umpteenth re-run on the TV screen of the firey demise of the doomed spacecraft, the imagery suddenly reminded me of a cluster of “Falling Stars”.

Seven gallant Pioneers returning home from the last great frontier, their proud and adoring Families and Colleages anxiously awaiting their triumphant return to Earth... to home.

Yet in a heartbeat, it seems, this high adventure was transformed into firey disaster; The good Ship Columbia and her Crew became in an instant...

Falling Stars.

Then the rough draft of a lyric began to form in my mind, along the lines of...

Seven Falling Stars.

Seven sparkling, Falling Stars,
lighting up the Morning;
Above the Lone Star State they blaze
And tumble without warning;
And behold; a Star of David;
Precious Star of India;
Streaming down from Heaven
Where the Angels hold so tightly...

Onto the twinkling Host of Heaven
Through ages as their own;
By their own Creator each one named, and counted
Seeds of Light throughout the Universe
He has so gloriously sown
Where but Angels - and a few brave Souls - encountered;

And among them shone, if but a while
A star of ____________;...
(Help me out here)...
????

...Something about “Columbia’s Coming Home...”

or...

“Did any child look up that day,
in wonder and in awe;
And wish a wish,
upon those falling Stars
Prechance she saw?
...

---

Admittedly chainsaw poetry at this point, but it’s slowly coming together.

There’s a song in here somewhere, don’t you suppose?

UJ

[My Favorite Headache]

Yes indeed.

[Darksheare]

Pink FLoyd 'Learining to Fly'

Into the distance a ribbon of black
Stretched to the point of no turning back
A flight of fancy on a windswept field
Standing alone my senses reeled
A fatal attraction holding me fast how
Can I escape this irresistible grasp?

Can't keep my eyes from the circling skies
Tongue tied and twisted Just an earth bound misfit I

Ice is forming on the tips of my wings
Unheeded warnings I thought I thought of everything
No navigator to guide my way home
Unladened, empty and turned to stone

A soul in tension that's learning to fly
Condition grounded but determined to try
Can't keep my eyes from the circling skies
Tongue-tied and twisted just an earth-bound misfit, I

Friction lock - set.
Mixture - rich
Propellers - fully forward
Flaps - set - 10 degrees
Engine gauges and suction - check

Mixture set to maximum percent - recheck
Flight instruments...
Altimeters - check both
(garbled word) - on
Navigation lights - on
Strobes - on
(to tower): Confirm 3-8-Echo ready for departure
(tower): Hello again, this is now 129.4
(to tower): 129.4. It's to go.
(tower): You may commence your takeoff, winds over 10 knots.
(to tower): 3-8-Echo
Easy on the brakes. Take it easy. Its gonna roll this time.
Just hand the power gradually, and it...

Above the planet on a wing and a prayer,
My grubby halo, a vapour trail in the empty air,
Across the clouds I see my shadow fly
Out of the corner of my watering eye
A dream unthreatened by the morning light
Could blow this soul right through the roof of the night

There's no sensation to compare with this
Suspended animation, A state of bliss
Can't keep my eyes from the circling skies
Tongue-tied and twisted just an earth-bound misfit, I

[Darksheare]

They were shooting stars, weren't they...

[BurbankKarl]

I remember my step-dad driving us up to Edwards to watch Columbia land. We had gone and watched one of the Enterprise tests......Happier Days

[HiTech RedNeck]

"And among them shone, if but a while
A star of ____________;...
(Help me out here)...
????"

<sensitive-poet-mode> ... a star of silvery metal bright
where gossamer glass from icy dew
gave way; and roamed in rarefied space's night
the vessel of Columbian dreams we knew
now perished; ...</sensitive-poet-mode>

That's enough for my brain at this hour. Good luck on the song.

[HiTech RedNeck]

whose gossamer glass from icy dew

[Atchafalaya]

And he ran out of gas. Can you beleive?

[Atchafalaya]

Fits! My local tv station used to close years ago with High Flight, still the best.

[Darksheare]

I remember Crippen and Young being slightly ruffled about the tiles missing on the OMS pods.
But nothing came of those missing tiles.
After that, any missing tiles were marginalised.

On the way back into the atmosphere, either Crippen or Young had a camera in hand and said to the other, "You know, this thing is HEAVY!"
The Glory Days of first flights and discovery.