ray@rochester.UUCP (Ray Frank) (02/02/86)
There has been a lot of discussion about why the nation has mourned the death of seven people aboard a space craft while the death of hundreds or even thousands in plane and auto crashes goes almost unnoticed. I've asked myself this same question many times, especially since I feel such a terrible sense of loss almost as though I knew each of the astronauts personally. I've come up with only a few answers for myself. It seems that we all need heros in one sense or another. These astronauts were to me heros who lived inordinary lives and took inordinary risks. There is a vast difference between hopping on a plane and going to grandma's house with only a billion in one chance of not getting there and hopping aboard a space shuttle. Also, this is the first such disaster for our space program. If planes had flown for 30 years without an in air accident, such an accident would certainly make headlines for weeks. And finally, when we lose a loved one, we cannot expect a stranger to feel the same sense of loss. For me, it is like that with the astronauts, I feel as though I knew them, especially the teacher, who has been in the public light quite a lot lately. If she had boarded a commercial airline and I witnessed the plane exploding in the air, and feeling that she didn't have a chance in a million of surviving, I think I would feel as I do now; sorrow and a sense of loss. As for a plane crash where people are killed, what spares me the same intense sorrow that their loved ones would feel is that for me those people never existed, I never knew them, never saw them. I didn't know what their smile was like or how they waved goodbye. Please no one out there take this the wrong way. Each life is precious, it is only that we are sometimes directly affected and sometimes indirectly affected by the loss of human life, I suppose it is nature's way of sparing us constant sorrow for the death every day of so many people. I would like to see more comments on this subject. For me, my sorrow is still somewhat confusing to me. I still find it difficult to accept that this has happened. ray
afb@pucc-i (Michael Lewis) (02/06/86)
I can't remember exactly which Apollo mission it was, but sometime in 1967
there was an oxygen fire on the launch pad which took the lives of Gus Grissom
(there is a building on Purdue's campus and an Air Force base in Northern
Indiana named after him) and two other astronauts whose names elude me.
Perhaps I should've waited 'til I had read all of the current net.space
postings before posting this myself...I have a feeling others have already
jumped on it...
Michael Lewis @ Purdue Universityholloway@drivax.UUCP (Bruce Holloway) (02/11/86)
In article <1275@pucc-i> afb@pucc-i (Michael Lewis) writes: > > I can't remember exactly which Apollo mission it was, but sometime in 1967 >there was an oxygen fire on the launch pad which took the lives of Gus Grissom >(there is a building on Purdue's campus and an Air Force base in Northern >Indiana named after him) and two other astronauts whose names elude me. The three astronauts were Grissom, White, and Chaffee(sp?).