[patriciaruth]

Historic context. This was the first year of the Reagan administration. The economy inherited from Carter was a disaster with double digit inflation, double digit interest rates and soon to have double digit unemployment rates. People in America were very dispirited.

This was the second landing of the Columbia, but Columbia was the first space shuttle to be reused, the first ever to have a second landing. Therefore, the second landing of Columbia was as historic as Enterprise's first landing as that craft was never used again.

Senator William Proxmire (D-WI) had just issued his annual Golden Fleece Award (for profligate, pointless spending) to the shuttle program, and his statements on the illogic of the space program had been printed in the previous newsletter of this small group of space enthusiasts to which I belonged.

WOW = weight on wings, WONG = weight on nose gear.

[patriciaruth]

Ping to my friends on the Dose.

[firewalk]

Bttt

[B-Chan]

The arching sky is calling
Spacemen back to their trade.
All hands! Stand by! Free falling!
And the lights below us fade.

Out ride the sons of Terra,
Far drives the thundering jet,
Up leaps a race of Earthmen,
Out, far, and onward yet ---

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.

Robert A. Heinlein

[baseballmom]

What a thrilling sight.

I saw the shuttle lift off in Florida in July, 1997. We were about 40 miles north. It was magnificent, even from a distance.

[Sonar5]

A Memorial I did this morning in Photoshop.

I am using this for my desktop. Feel free to use it or post
it anywhere you like.

The Background was taken by Digital Camera from this
shuttle mission.

The rest of the pics are from Nasa's website.

There is a larger version on my website here:

http://home.attbi.com/~Sonar5/Shuttle/memorial-sts-107.jpg


Regards,
Joe