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The Kennedy Space Center memorial took place on Friday February 7, 2003, six days after the accident. The event took place on the runway where Columbia was supposed to land at the time the landing was supposed to take place.
Jim Halsell is an astronaut with five spaceflights under his belt. He was the manager of shuttle activities at the Kennedy Space Center for over two years. Just before the Columbia accident he returned to active flight duty and was assigned to command one of the most important space station missions, the flight that will complete the American portion. Halsell talked about each of the STS-107 crewmembers -
Rick Husband was the commander. Concerning his professional skills and his leadership abilities, you really only need to know two things: First, we recruited him into the Astronaut Office because of his wide-known reputation within the Air Force. Second, Rick was offered his own Shuttle command after only one flight as a pilot instead of the standard two; he was that good.
But Rick wrapped all this skill in a west Texas "ah, shucks" demeanor that totally represented his humility and his respect and his caring for everybody. That attitude set the tone for his entire crew. In the words of one of the Kennedy test team members, "They were the tightest-knit bunch we've ever seen and one of the best we ever launched."
Let me tell you about Rick's crewmates. Mike Anderson. Mike was the quiet, get-it-done professional. His calm confidence reflected an inner peace that came from somewhere deep within himself and his love for his family and his absolute belief in his God. The SPACEHAB team remembers that they respected Mike's natural leadership so much they worked doubly hard so that they might win his respect for them. Late in the mission, the SPACEHAB team got their answer. Mike took the time to write an e-mail from space thanking them for their tireless and outstanding support. Mike was a class act.
Laurel Clark. Laurel was meticulous and detail-oriented, but she balanced this intensity with an absolute unwillingness to start any meeting without giving you a hug or asking about your family or telling you, with pride, about hers. And she never ended the meeting without remembering to thank everybody there for what they were doing. If a member of her ground team was passing through town, she'd invite them over for a home-cooked meal. Laurel made everyone, regardless of where they ranked on the organizational structure and the organizational chart, she made them feel like a colleague and a co-conspirator for success.
Willie McCool. Laurel described Willie as an eight-year-old trapped in a ten-year-old's body. Now, partly this referred to the fact that Willie had the genes from somewhere that made him look like a ten year old, his young appearance, but mainly it was a comment on Willie's almost boyish attitude about everything he did and everybody he met. He always exuded a positive and enthusiastic can-do spirit. When you were around Willie, you got the feeling that he knew just how lucky he was in both his work and his home life, and somehow that made you walk away feeling a little bit better about your life.
Ilan Ramon. His experiment trainers referred to Ilan as "the machine." Now, what this meant was he was so good, he could sit down with an experiment he'd never seen before, just ask a couple of quick questions to understand what the principles were and what they were trying to achieve, and he could run through the procedures absolutely correctly the first time and every time.
On this mission, Ilan was representing an entire country, Israel, and the aspirations of all persons of the Jewish faith. The weight of this responsibility would have burdened a lesser man, but Ilan always wore a smile that spoke of confidence in himself and in those upon whom he depended.
Kalpana Chawla, or as she thankfully let us call her "K.C." Many astronauts, I dare say most, deal with the pressure of the last few weeks before you launch by taking on this attitude of "please, just tell me only what I need to know and do it as quick as you possibly can." But not K.C. No detail was ever too small and no information was unworthy of her interest. K.C. was dogged in her preparation, but she was also good at cutting through that NASA technical jargon. She once summarized a half page of technical details on setting up an experiment as, "Oh, this little guy over here connects to that silly little tether over there." Astronauts rate each other unofficially on their ability to be trusted with critical duties on orbit and the depth of their orbiter system's knowledge. On this scale, K.C. had developed into an astronaut every commander wanted.
Dave Brown. Dave probably didn't know this, but he was categorized with envy by his fellow astronauts into a very special group we call "the renaissance astronauts." You see, before he was an astronaut, Dave was a Navy fighter pilot, and before he was a naval aviator, he was a medical doctor, and before that, he was a national class gymnast and even a circus performer. Dave's theory about life was to have fun at everything he did and to do everything possible, and he did everything so well.
Dave was a wanna-be Steven Spielberg. He edited miles of camcorder tape that he took of his crew's activities and made them into very, very polished videos, music included. Every crew family will now cherish those videos forever.
Dave, K.C., Ilan, Willie, Laurel, Mike, Rick, losing you is one of the hardest blows we've ever suffered, but knowing you was and will always be one of our greatest treasures. Thank you for gracing our lives with your love and your friendship. We will never forget you.