REFLECTING ON TWO SPACE SHUTTLE TRAGEDIES

On Jan. 28th and Feb. 1st  mark anniversaries of the two space shuttle tragedies that together claimed the lives of 14 astronauts.

                             Francis Collins will never forget those horrifying, heart-wrenching images of 25 years ago.
                             The retired Neshaminy teacher and space exploration enthusiast will always remember watching fellow educator Christa McAuliffeand six others die when the space shuttle Challenger broke apart and crashed just 73 seconds after liftoff on Jan. 28, 1986.
                             And while it might seem a natural thought, Collins said he doesn't really dwell on the fact that it could have been him aboard the ill-fated shuttle.  The Middletown resident was one of 11,000 teachers across the country who applied to be on the shuttle under NASA's Teacher in Space Project, a spot that went to McAuliffe, a social studies teacher at Concord High School in New Hampshire.  "I've had so many people ask me since, 'Weren't you glad it wasn't you?' but I truly never had that thought," said Collins, 63.  "I would have gladly taken that ticket to ride, and would have gone up in a shuttle in a minute after that if I'd gotten the chance.  If it had been me, I think I would have just thought that it was my time and the reward of being up there was worth the risk."
                             On that day, Collins and the 30 students in his Earth and space science class were set up to watch the launch of McAuliffe and six other astronauts at Neshaminy Middle School, which has since been closed and sold to St. Mary Medical Center.
                             Many more filtered in from the hallway to watch, since televisions in classrooms were less prevalent back then, said Collins.
                             "We were watching the shuttle go up and this thing happens and at first, we were hoping and praying maybe we were just looking at rocket exhaust, but that thought was very fleeting," he said.  "It was very apparent very soon there was a serious problem going on, and it was just astonishment and disbelief.  It was a moment frozen in time, just like all the great tragedies we see in our lives.  It was like losing seven members of your family."

Sad Time 
                            This is an especially sad time of the year for Collins and so many others. While today marks a quarter-century since the Challenger explosion, Feb. 1st is the eight anniversary of the other space shuttle tragedy in American history.  On Feb. 1, 2003, Columbia broke up and crashed over Texas near the end of its 16-day mission, killing all seven crew members.
                             The cause of the Challenger disaster was later found to be a faulty O-ring seal in one of two solid fuel rocket boosters.  A breach of the O-ring allowed hot gases to escape and burn a hole in the shuttle's 15-story external fuel tank, causing it to explode.  Cold weather that made the O-ring brittle also contributed to the tragedy, investigations later found.
                              For Columbia, the cause was later found to be something that happened during the shuttle's launch more than two weeks earlier.  A piece of foam insulation broke off the external tank and struck the left wing, damaging the shuttle's thermal protection system and causing excessive heat during re-entry.
                              "When this time of year comes up, I think of the John Denver song 'Flying for Me,' said Collins.
                              The lyrics include the words: "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, they were flying for me."
                               Very touching, said Collins.  "It's a soothing song this time of year," he said.
                                Retired astronaut and former Northampton resident Andrew Allen, who flew on three shuttle missions after the Chalenger disaster, remembered he had just returned from a practice bombing run in an F-18 fighter jet when he learned of the tragedy.  Allen, a lieutenant colonel and pilot in the Marine Corps, was stationed at the time at an air base in Yuma, Ariz.
                                "Some members of the grounds crew ran up to tell me," said Allen, 55, who now lives in Safety Harbor,Fla., and owns an engineering firm there.
                                "Of course, your first reaction is sadness and sorrow for everyone involved and their families, but I remember feeling especially sorry about the teacher," he continued.  "She wasn't a professional astronaut and possibly didn't have as clear an understanding of the risks as a professional astronaut, who makes a career of being on the edge of risk.  I think the country at the time had turned shuttle flights into a routine thing, but there never was and never will be anything routine about space travel."

Program shelved
                                The Teacher in Space Project, designed to put elementary or secondary school teachers aboard shuttle flights, was shelved by NASA after the Challenger crash.
                                The tragedy did not dissuade Allen, a graduate of Archbishop Wood High School, from becoming an astronaut.  He was a crew member on three shuttle flights, on the Atlantis in 1992 and the Columbia in 1994 and 1996.  Allen was especially saddened by the Columbia disaster years later.
                                "That was the ship I was on and it and the people involved with it were near and dear to my heart," he said.  "But space exploration isn't a perfect world and never will be.  I don't think these tragedies negate the technology gain and what space travel does for the country.  It makes the risks these fine people take worthwhile.  For me, I think the risk of becoming an astronaut was relative.  For me, it was probably safer than other things I had done, like being a test pilot or landing airplanes on aircraft carriers."
                                Former Lower Makefield resident Larry DeLucas, a professor and director of the Center for Bio-Physical Science and Engineering at the University of Alabama-Birmingham, spent 14 days aboard the Columbia as a civilian scientist in 1992.  He said he thought about the Challenger just before that Columbia flight lifted off.
                                "In the minute before launch I said a real long prayer," said DeLucas,60.  "But Then I just forced myself to concentrate on my duties during the flight."
                                DeLucas attended Pennsbury schools for several years before his family moved away from the area during his junior year at Pennsbury High in 1967.   During his Columbia flight, DeLucas said he helped conduct 31 different experiments in biology and other sciences, including ones designed to improve semiconductors and the process for refining gasoline.
                                Like Collins and Allen, DeLucas said the benefits of space exploration have justified the risks.
                                "I thinkspace travel has (led) and can continue to lead to technological gains that lead to high paying jobs and other benefits for the country," DeLucas said.
                                The shuttle tragedies are never too far from the mind of Middletown resident Mary Ann Pietras, whose son Christopher Ferguson piloted a flight of the shuttle Atlantis in 2006 and is scheduled to be commander on an Atlantis flight tentatively scheduled for june 28.  It will be the last space shuttle mission, according to NASA.  That final flight has not yet received funding from Congress, though it's expected, said NASA spokeswoman Stephanie Schierholz.