To Whom It May Concern

No Parallel

The NASA Space Shuttle program has been around since spring of 1981 when Columbia went into orbit, inspiring a new age of space travel. As Saturday morning rolled around, there had been more than 100 shuttle missions, with one previously ending in disaster. But even with the Challenger tragedy, the rewards of space travel far outweigh the risks.

The Columbia, the oldest of the shuttles in current service, disintegrated during re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere Saturday morning, and with this, the hardly noticed missions that the space shuttle routinely performs without a hitch, this mission is given the attention, the admiration, and the sorrow of an entire nation, and in many respects, the world.

Of course, the media goes to 24 hour coverage of this event with speculation and guesses as to what happened. What was known that the shuttle was traveling at mach 15, at 200,000 feet in the air, at more than 3000 degrees Fahrenheit, when suddenly the vessel came apart.

Certainly most of what I’m saying you already know, unless you spend a lot of time living in a cave. What gets me about all of this is how the media starts making correlations to this disaster and the tragic events of 9/11/01. Ignorance on the part of our news media brings about ignorant statements such as this.

First off, what happened on 9/11 was a horrible disaster that killed thousands of innocent people who died for nothing more than going to work, making a better life for themselves, doing things that should have never had a risk of death to begin with.

NASA astronauts accept a huge responsibility based on the type of job they are performing. Space travel pushes the envelope of human technology to the limit, the risks are astronomical. The very fact that we are able to perform space travel with so few problems in most cases is amazing. Astronauts know this, they accept the risks for the idea of what they are doing, pushing man’s limits further, expanding our horizons. The costs, even with tragedy like this, are far outweighed by the benefits.

Do we mourn the loss of the Columbia, the seven lives cut short by what happened on February 1st? Most certainly we do. However, it is important to remember that astronauts choose their destiny, to do what they love. For every astronaut inducted into the NASA space program, there are dozens, maybe even hundreds who are turned away. This is unlikely to change.

I guess what I’m getting at with this, is that it’s appalling to make a parallel between a tragedy that occurs from something with such expected risk, and another such as 9/11 that occurred for something of an entirely different reason, and I would hope that no one else would make such a correlation.

I also hope that whatever happened Saturday to be corrected within short order, because I believe in the validity of the space program and what it does not only for our country, but for all of humanity.