Magnificent Desolation_ The Long Journey Home From the Moon - Buzz Aldrin [143]
The Columbia spread bits of debris across parts of Texas and as far away as Arkansas and Louisiana. My heart sank as I watched the television coverage of the tragedy.
I had little time to grieve, however. Within minutes, all six telephone lines in our home and office were lighting up, with what seemed like every television network and news agency in America wanting to ask me about the chain of events. Several television networks wanted me to sign on as their exclusive news commentator to help viewers understand more about this horrific incident.
I knew I couldn’t help everybody, but felt compelled to do what I could. I decided to work exclusively with NBC, and within two hours I was on the air with various NBC commentators, discussing the catastrophe. I tried to remain stoic and scientific in most of my comments, but at one point during my appearance on NBC’s Nightly News, while discussing the disaster with Brian Williams, I could no longer hold back the tears welling in my eyes, as with trembling voice I recited a lyric from the song, “Fire in the Sky,” written by Dr. Jordan Kare that seemed so appropriate to me:
Though a nation watched her falling
Yet a world could only cry
As they passed from us to glory
Riding fire in the sky.15
I knew the natural result of such a tragedy would be for NASA to pull back, to say, “We aren’t going to do anything until the investigators’ report is released and we find out why this horrible accident occurred.” That was understandable, but we dared not put life on hold as we waited.
Months later, when their report came out, the Columbia accident investigation board mandated that the remaining three shuttle orbiters in the fleet, Discovery, Endeavor, and Atlantis, be permanently retired by the year 2010. NASA had been struggling with the issue of how long to fly the shuttles; some claimed they were never meant to have a thirty-year lifespan when they began flying in 1981. This mandate made it all the more urgent for America to put into effect a strong new vision and start building the next generation of spacecraft to replace the shuttle program. The report also recommended that the astronaut crew be separated from cargo in the launch vehicle in future space transportation systems. I saw this as a red flag that might prove a costly limitation as we moved forward.
With that premonition in mind, I initiated a conference call between two key admirals to raise the issue, Admiral Hal Gehman, who chaired the Columbia accident investigation board, and Admiral Craig E. Steidle, NASA’s associate administrator in charge of exploration systems. I told them that the separation of crew and cargo would restrict and limit the flexibility of configuring our future launch systems. We reviewed the issues, but in the end the accident board was not going to change its position due to underlying crew safety considerations. As it turns out, NASA implemented the board’s report by developing two completely different launch vehicles (the Ares I and the Ares V) to launch crew and cargo separately in its new Constellation program. Though it may take a rocket scientist to understand the ramifications, in my opinion—one shared by many others—NASA’s development of two completely different launch vehicles has strayed far from the shuttle-derived designs that make the most sense. This approach is what lies at the crux of our space program’s challenges today.
It saddens me to know that we have fallen short on our progress as a nation to lead the world in space. As I write these words, we do not have in place a new space transportation system to take over when the shuttle orbiters are retired. At NASA’s current pace with the Constellation program, America will experience a gap of at least five years in which we will have no capability of launching humans into space. We will have no direct ability to send our astronauts to the $100-billion investment in the International Space Station. We