Shuttle Columbia

If it wasn't for the advent of personal computers, I could see myself working in the field of astronomy and space exploration. My fascination with outer space started in the 3rd grade. I used to go through my parents' encyclopedia and read through all about NASA's rockets and their missions. Mercury. Gemini. Apollo. I can still remember this diagram that had all these rockets drawn side by side and compared them to the size of a person. I was in awe that we could create such a huge and powerful machine. At that point, I was hooked on everything that had to do with outer space.

When we had those book orders in school, I wanted to get every single book that talked about our solar system and space exploration. I even had a favorite planet – Saturn. I can still remember our grade school field trip that we took to Griffith Observatory. I never wanted to leave the place. Soon after, my parents got me a telescope. It was basically a toy but I didn't care. I used to spend many nights in my backyard looking at the stars and the moon. I didn't think it could get any better.

Then came the Space Shuttle. We had learned about it in class and what made it unique from all the other rockets we've launched into space. Space Shuttle Columbia launched in April of 1981 – Mission STS-1. I can't say that I remember watching the launch, but I do remember all the news and headlines of the mission and collecting any bits of information I could about it – even if that meant cutting up my parents' newspaper and copy of Newsweek. If it was possible for an 8-year-old kid to be in love, then I can say that I loved Shuttle Columbia. I had a huge poster of Columbia's first liftoff in my room, and had studied over so many pictures of this beautiful machine that I could practically draw the shuttle and all its details and markings by heart. I thought for sure that I was going to grow up and be involved with space exploration, in some way or form.

Fast forward 20 years and like most everyone else, I became jaded about our shuttle missions and the huge interest I had as a child in the space program had all but disappeared. I didn't know when our shuttles launched for another mission. I only knew when they came back and just happened to hear and feel the sonic boom that it created on reentry, or when the launchings and landings just happened to get a 15-second blurb in the evening news.

I think that's what saddened me most about the Columbia tragedy. I didn't get a chance to appreciate what her crew has accomplished and all the history and milestones that Columbia was a part of, and that I will never get to see her fly again. And it's even more tragic that the crew included the first Indian-born woman and first Israeli astronaut to be sent out to space.

RIP Columbia and her crew of STS-107.