The Hindu : Front Page : NASA honours Columbia astronauts

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Monday, Feb 04, 2008
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NASA honours Columbia astronauts

— Photo: AFP

Mission specialist Kalpana Chawla in this file photo.

CAPE CANAVERAL (Florida): Space officials, schoolchildren and families of astronauts who died when the Columbia shuttle exploded while returning from space five years ago gathered to remember the seven crew members, including astronauts from India and Israel, here on Sunday.

Columbia never made it back from its science mission. Its wing gashed by a chunk of fuel tank foam insulation at lift-off 16 days earlier, the spaceship shattered high above Texas just minutes from home. NASA’s top spaceflight officials joined nearly 200 others at the Kennedy Space Center’s outdoor astronaut memorial.

Each guest received a long-stemmed rose; the flowers were placed in the grating in front of the giant shiny granite marker bearing the names of all NASA’s 24 astronauts killed in the line of duty. India, the homeland of Columbia astronaut Kalpana Chawla, also was represented at the hour-long ceremony. The chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation, G. Madhavan Nair, noted how the loss of Columbia was painful not just for the astronauts’ families but for the entire world.

“Much more than any physical monument, they’re memorialised right here in our hearts,” said former shuttle commander Bill Readdy. — AP

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