February 3, 2003
HEROES IN OUR MIDST:
Tragedy Hits Close to Home (Kristina Eddy, 2/02/03, Valley News)The space shuttle Columbia was Jay Buckey's home for 16 days in 1998.The Dartmouth Medical School researcher circled the Earth 256 times inside NASA's oldest shuttle, working with six other crew members to study how space travel affects the brain and nervous system.
Buckey was far from NASA's Houston hub yesterday as he sat in his Hanover living room watching television news. But he was with the space-flight community in spirit as he tried to learn what he could about the accident that destroyed Columbia and killed its seven crew members, six of whom Buckey had met while training in Houston.
Buckey said he knew all the crew members except Ilan Ramon, the Israeli astronaut. "All the other members of the crew had been down at NASA while I was there," Buckey said. "I just really feel for their families. You can never prepare for it."
But Buckey said it was made clear to him when he was a payload specialist assigned to the 1998 Neurolab mission that a catastrophic event was a possibility during that flight, Columbia's 25th, and every shuttle mission. [...]
Friends had been calling the Buckeys all morning yesterday, and Jay Buckey took the time to talk with television and print reporters. Standing with a mug of tea in his kitchen, he said in a calm, matter-of-fact way that he'd return to space if he were given the chance.
"“Oh, yeah. Yeah. Definitely," he said.
Dr. Buckey did his medical training at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center with the Wife. He's exactly as decent and unassuming as these guys always seem on tv. He speaks all over the area and answers question, the same ones over and over, with great patience and an unflagging willingness to share his experiences.
The other day on NPR, one of the correspondents said that the Israelis had particularly latched on to Colonel Ramon because his mission showed that Israel need not be about war only, that it could also be about "normal" things. It's remarkable that this is how we've come to view travel in space--as something "normal". Obviously it's anything but: the folks who fly these missions are, all of them, heroes.
MORE:
-AUDIO DISCUSSION: Nation Mourns Shuttle Loss with Dr. Jay Buckey (The Exchange, 2/03/03, NHPR)
OJ - I was also struck by the "normal things" comments on NPR...seems odd to think of traveling 200 miles high at 5 miles a second as "normal"...
Glad Buckey was so unequivocal about his willingness to return to space. Same with John Glenn...when Chris Matthews asked him if he'd go up again, he didn't hesitate in saying "If they asked me to fly tomorrow, I would."
On the radio show that's linked there the host asked the other guest, a professor of Physics, if he'd like to visit space. The guy said: I'm fine right here thanks. I'm just glad we have guys like Jay to do it.
Amen.