Shuttle disaster generates discussion
By Luke Savitch
IV Leader Staff, Feb. 21, 2003
IVCC students and faculty joined the nation in its viewing of the Space Shuttle Columbia tragedy on Feb. 1.
NASA lost contact with the space shuttle at 9 a.m. EST when the shuttle was about 203,000 feet above north central Texas and traveling approximately 12,500 mph. Shortly afterwards the shuttle could be seen literally disintegrating in the air. Seven crew members were on board, and none survived.
The shuttle accident has generated national discussion on whether manned space flight should continue, and that discussion has continued at IVCC.
Dr. Robert Abele, philosophy and religious studies professor, believes NASA should still have manned missions to space. He said that “humans have some type of drive to explore that [he does] not believe can be capped because of one disaster.”
Lou Caldwell, a foreign language instructor, had a similar response. He posed his own question, stating “without the questions of the unknown where would we be? Without the curiosity for a voyage into the unknown we would be huddled in caves around a wood fire fearing what may be outside the cave.”
Students echoed those instructors’ remarks.
Valentina Myers, a student at IVCC, believes we have to continue to send manned missions into space because she believes “sooner or later we will need more space than Earth can provide. We would either need to take more rights away from people by limiting them to so many children, or find somewhere else to populate.”
Eric Baldauf, also a student, said, “I think there is nothing else to explore on this Earth, and I believe that [space] is truly the final frontier. We need to keep learning about all forms of life so we can improve on ours.
When asked whether or not they believed NASA could have done things differently, an array of opinions were given.
Mathematics instructor Wes Black said, “[NASA] took a gamble, they could have looked a little closer into the situation. With all of their technology, they should have been able to do something more for the space shuttle and crew.”
Myers believes that NASA “should not give the jobs of building the space crafts to the lowest bidder.”
Abele and Caldwell believed NASA personnel did all they could.
When asked how this tragedy is related to the Challenger explosion back in 1986, Black said, “In 1986 we were completely caught off guard.There seemed to be no problems then the shuttle just exploded. Now, they [NASA] knew something was wrong beforehand, and they did not do anything about it.”
He also said that the Columbia probably did not have as big of an impact on the nation, but he hopes that people still understand that it is a tragedy and should not be overlooked.
Abele said, “The Challenger was one of the first NASA disasters, and it really caught the attention of the public. Columbia was a disaster, but it probably did not have as big of an impact [as the Challenger].”