''The Columbia is lost; there are no survivors.''

With the shock, with the horror and despair and mourning, will come the necessary investigations into what went wrong. I have no doubt that they will discover the truth. But the ramifications of the tragedy itself, and of the findings to come, are inestimable.

I have followed the coverage on television and on the internet, perhaps feeling compelled by agony to understand as much as I can, as quickly as I can. In the end, as C.S. Lewis realized after the death of his wife and reflected in A Grief Observed, it isn't about understanding at all. It's about misunderstanding a bit less than you did before.

In his televised address, President Bush quoted the prophet Isaiah. In my own reflection, I am struck by the first two verses of the 57th chapter. "The righteous perish, and no one ponders it in his heart; devout men are taken away, and no one understands that the righteous are taken away to be spared from evil. Those who walk uprightly enter into peace; they find rest as they lie in death."

Already the whirlwind of outrage erupts from a cloak of sorrow; I hate myself for suspecting that some of these people are secretly glad of the opportunity for wailing and gnashing their teeth, but I am not responsible for their words. Not 24 hours have passed, and already I am hearing them talk about permanently grounding the shuttle, abandoning the International Space Station--even doing away with manned spaceflight altogether.

I think to myself, this is not an evil which the courageous men and women of Columbia have been spared. It is an evil that is being foisted upon them, this abhorrent slander against the great cause to which they freely dedicated their lives. It seems that at least for some, the nobility of their ideals, the grandeur of their vision, and the triumphant way in which they accepted their pioneering challenge are of no consequence. To such fiends in human form as these, I can only quote Isaiah 57:4. "Whom are you mocking? At whom do you sneer and stick out your tongue? Are you not a brood of rebels, the offspring of liars?"

Oh, yes. You are.

The struggle, the conquest, the journey into the unknown, the very embrace of destiny--they must go on. And let us not stop with plain sentiment, but rather make a true commitment. The Orbital Spaceplane will go forward. Project Prometheus will go forward. A manned mission to Mars will go forward. The settlement of the Red Planet will go forward. And then, at last, the fitting tribute proposed by the Mars Society--a tree in memory of each of the heroes of Columbia, seven in all, to be planted on Mars itself.

Go To Page: 1 2