there is a good article on sfgate today about nasa people. the article focuses on ames, because that’s san francisco’s local nasa connection, but the thought can be expanded to all nasa centers, including jsc:
“And they saw the shuttle missions as living things, something they had worked on and worried about and checked and double-checked until safety permeated every aspect of every day.
They are engineers who believe they can reduce the risk of manned space flight, only to be reminded in the most public of tragedies, that their pursuits are dangerous and fragile….”
and:
“That’s why people stay at NASA. That’s why they pass up job offers from high-profile companies and stock options and bonuses. They are dweebs, and they know it. But they are Icarus and Leonardo da Vinci, Magellan and the Wright Brothers, John Glenn and Neil Armstrong.
“Space flight seems to be a call to the human spirit to do something beyond ourselves,” said Boyd. “It is a fire in all our hearts that cannot be extinguished.”
i know it sounds incredibly cheesy, but well, that’s it.
today is better than yesterday. i anticipate actually being able to go home at 5:00 for the first time since the accident.
