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Topic: space shuttle Columbia
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Robby
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Member # 448
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ELIJAH
Rich Mullins
Second Kings 2:11, Matthew 6:19-21
The Jordan is waiting for me to cross through
My heart is aging I can tell
So Lord, I'm begging for one last favor from You
Here's my heart take it where You will
This life has shown me how we're mended and how we're torn
How it's okay to be lonely as long as you're free
Sometimes my ground was stoney
And sometimes covered up with thorns
And only You could make it what it had to be
And now that it's done
Well if they dressed me like a pauper
Or if they dined me like a prince
If they lay me with my fathers
Or if my ashes scatter on the wind
I don't care
But when I leave I want to go out like Elijah
With a whirlwind to fuel my chariot of fire
And when I look back on the stars
It'll be like a candlelight in Central Park
And it won't break my heart to say goodbye
There's people been friendly, but they'd never be your friends
Sometimes this has bent me to the ground
Now that this is all ending
I want to hear some music once again
'Cause it's the finest thing that I have ever found
But the Jordan is waiting
Though I ain't never seen the other side
Still they say you can't take in the things you have here
So on the road to salvation
I stick out my thumb and He gives me a ride
And His music is already falling on my ears
There's people been talking
They say they're worried about my soul
Well, I'm here to tell you I'll keep rocking
'Til I'm sure it's my time to roll
And when I do
When I leave I want to go out like Elijah
With a whirlwind to fuel my chariot of fire
And when I look back on the stars
It'll be like a candlelight in Central Park
And it won't break my heart to say goodbye
'Cause when I leave I want to go out like Elijah
With a whirlwind to fuel my chariot of fire
And when I look back on the stars
It'll be like a candlelight in Central Park
And it won't break my heart to say goodbye
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Posts: 364 | Registered: Sep 2002
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Robby
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Member # 448
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This article is about Rick Husband and Michael Anderson, two astronauts who were aboard Columbia. We can give thanks and praise to God that they both loved Jesus and faithfully served Him and that they are now with the Lord.
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Astronauts' Church Meets To Pray, Honor The Fallen
KURT LOFT kloft@tampatrib.com
Published: Feb 3, 2003
HOUSTON - Before Rick Husband left for space last month, he gave his wife, Evelyn, a list of last wishes.
The commander of the shuttle Columbia wanted their children to share his religious commitment, even if he couldn't be there to guide them.
``Tell them about Jesus,'' Husband wrote. ``He means everything to me.''
The words hit hard Sunday at a crowded Grace Community Church in a suburb outside Houston, where Husband and fellow astronaut Michael Anderson were members.
That congregation turned out in force - nearly 6,000 people over three morning services - to honor their fallen through prayer and a show of strength. The seven astronauts perished at 9 a.m. Saturday when Columbia burned up as it re-entered the atmosphere.
``These kind of tragedies are personal for us,'' said Steve Riggle, Grace's senior pastor. ``Many of us remember Challenger, and now we face that same kind of day. No one has an adequate answer for this day.''
Sunday's homage to the Columbia crew was symbolic of services and feelings throughout the world. The Grace congregation raised hands together, as if to carry the burden of the seven astronauts who died. A pair of screens showed a film clip of the astronauts, and then an interview of Husband talking about his faith, and how being an astronaut was insignificant compared to ``being a good husband and a good father.''
Congregation members sang, cried and trembled more than they had on any Sunday in years.
``We knew Rick, who came over to our house once,' said Jack Walker, a Houston dentist, comforting his tearful wife, Barbara. ``This shakes a person to the bone.''
While many at the church were saddened by Saturday's tragedy - the third time U.S. astronauts have died preparing for or conducting a mission - they said they are motivated by the will to move forward with the space program.
``I feel a deep sense of peace right now, a sense of comfort,' said Geri Smith of Houston. ``But we will move on. The whole community and the world is behind those astronauts.''
Grace Community Church sits just outside the gates of Johnson Space Center, in an area of Houston known as Clear Lake, home to thousands of National Aeronautics and Space Administration employees. Their reaction to the accident was as much collective as individual, said 42-year-old Lima Deyo.
``People here are in shock, but this is a tight community, and we have a strong faith,'' she said. ``Everybody wants to figure out what happened so we can fix it and continue.''
A few miles away at the main gate of the space center, hundreds of people placed flowers, cards and photographs of the astronauts along the ground. An Israeli flag honored fallen astronaut Ilan Ramon, Israel's first man in space.
One child left a blue polka-dot teddy bear in the grass, its arms wrapped around a heart-shaped candle bearing the word ``love.''
For Richard Steel, a health care specialist who lives 20 miles north of the space center, it was a day he won't soon forget.
``I saw the Challenger accident, and 9/11, and now this,'' he said, fighting back tears. ``It's a bad dream. It's unreal. And it's heartbreaking to know they had just 16 minutes to land. It makes you feel so helpless.''
That 16 minutes, Riggle said during his sermon, is all that kept Husband, Anderson, Ramon, William McCool, Kalpana Chawla, Laurel Clark and David Brown from what would have been another routine touchdown. That should not detract, he said, from what they left.
``The shuttle mission may not have been complete,'' Riggle said, ``but Mike and Rick are men who have finished their life mission.''
Astronauts--TampaTrib
Posts: 364 | Registered: Sep 2002
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Kindgo
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Member # 2
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NASA declares emergency after losing contact
with Columbia
By Haaretz Service and Agencies
Ilan Ramon (front row R) speaking during a press conference onboard the space shuttle Columbia last week.
(Photo: Reuters)
NASA declared an emergency and was 'fearing the worst' Saturday after it lost contact with the Columbia space shuttle as it streaked toward a Florida touchdown Saturday to end a successful 16-day scientific research mission that included the first Israeli astronaut, Ilan Ramon.
The last contact with the shuttle was at 4 P.M. Israel time (1400 GMT).
Fifteen minutes after the expected landing time, and with no word from the shuttle, NASA announced that search and rescue teams were being mobilized in Dallas and Fort Worth areas.
CNN said that an explosion had been reported over Dallas. It said that there was debris falling in the area.
NASA earlier ordered flight controllers to pull out emergency procedures and ordered them to retain all their records.
Columbia was aiming for a touch down at 1416 GMT. It was at an altitude of 60,210 meters (200,700 feet), traveling at 20,113 kph (12,500 mph) when mission control lost contact. There was no further communication and no further tracking data.
Ilan Ramon, a colonel in Israel's air force and former fighter pilot, became the first man from his country to fly in space, and his presence resulted in an increase in security, not only for Columbia's January 16 launch, but also for its landing. Space agency officials feared his presence might make the shuttle more of a terrorist target.
Columbia's crew - Ramon and six Americans - completed all of their 80-plus experiments in orbit. They studied ant, bee and spider behavior in weightlessness as well as changes in flames and flower scents, and took measurements of atmospheric dust with a pair of Israeli cameras.
An Israel Air Force officer, staying at the NASA center in Washington, told Israel Radio on Saturday that the experiment conducted on dust clouds over the Middle East were very successful, and that Ramon and his colleagues managed to photograph dust storms over the Atlantic Ocean.
The officer, identified as M., added that the scientists on board the shuttle photographed "sprites" - flashes of blue and red light seen during lightning storms. It was the first time the phenomena, long disbelieved by scientists, was photographed from space, the officer said.
The 13 lab rats on board - part of a brain and heart study - had to face the guillotine following the flight so researchers could see up-close the effects of so much time in weightlessness. The insects and other animals had a brighter, longer future: the student experimenters were going to get them back and many of the youngsters planned to keep them, almost like pets.
All of the scientific objectives were accomplished during the round-the-clock laboratory mission, and some of the work may be continued aboard the international space station, researchers said. The only problem of note was a pair of malfunctioning dehumidifiers, which temporarily raised temperatures inside the laboratory to the low 80s (high 20s Celsius), 10 degrees (about 5 degrees Celsius) higher than desired.
Some of Columbia's crew members didn't want their time in space to end.
"Do we really have to come back?" astronaut David Brown jokingly asked Mission Control before the ride home.
NASA's next shuttle flight, a space station construction mission, is scheduled for March. The next time Columbia flies will be in November, when it carries into orbit educator-astronaut Barbara Morgan, who was the backup for Challenger crew member Christa McAuliffe in 1986.
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God bless,
Kindgo
Inside the will of God there is no failure. Outside the will of God there is no success.
Posts: 4320 | From: Sunny Florida | Registered: Jun 2002
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