REMEMBERING COLUMBIA
In wake of tragedy, NASA recovers treasures that survived the firey crash
BY TERRIE GONZALEZ MANAGING EDITOR
Feb. 1 will be a day to pause and reflect - what was - and what was lost.

Four years after the crash of the Space Shuttle Columbia, the nation will remember the crew of seven: Rick Husband, William McCool, Michael Anderson, Laurel Clark, David Brown, Kalpana Chawla and Ilan Ramon. They left behind 12 children, six spouses, 13 parents and 20 brothers and sisters in three countries.

Traveling at 18 times the speed of sound, the Columbia 7 were only 15 minutes from touchdown after a nearflawless, 16-day mission dedicated to scientific experiments.

In the wake of the terrible tragedy, all was not lost that day on Feb. 1, 2003.

As NASA engineers began to reconstruct the fragments of a giant jigsaw puzzle that once was the world's most complex flying machine, they discovered a few miracles that survived the firey explosion.

A canister of live, wiggling worms survived the fiery crash of the Space Shuttle Columbia. The canister, which was part of a scientific experiment using microgravity, was recovered in East Texas.

Perhaps the most startling discovery was a canister of very much alive and wiggling C. elegans nemotodes - more commonly known as round worms.

Project Manager Fred Ahmay said the biological research was part of a mid-deck experiment that was recovered in East Texas.

"The worms were found alive after flying on Columbia's last mission, STS-107," he said. "The experiment was designed to verify a new synthetic nutrient solution for an International Space Station model specimen planned to be used extensively for ISS gene expression studies."

The ship's physician and flight surgeon, Dr. Clark, conducted many of the experiments aboard the Columbia. "Life," she said, "continues in a lot of places, and life is a magical thing."

While much of the flight data and research was transmitted to Mission Control in Houston during the flight, a digital camera filled with never-beforeseen images also survived the crash.

Prior to re-entry, astronauts enjoyed a "light" moment together as they posed for a photo while floating weightless in space.

NASA appears to be back on track, after a 29-month investigation into what went wrong. The cause was determined to be a hole in the wing of the shuttle allowing superheated gases during re-entry to enter the wing of the space plane. Careful analysis of film at liftoff showed a piece of insulating foam falling off the giant solid fuel booster tank, gouging a hole when it struck the left wing of the shuttle.

Now with four successful shuttle missions since the tragedy, NASA is preparing the Atlantis for a rendezvous with the International Space Station March 16 when they deliver a starboard truss and a solar array.

The nation has found many ways, large and small, to honor the memory of the astronauts. A celestial memorial in the form of an asteroid is orbiting somewhere between Mars and Jupiter and now carries the Columbia namesake.

On Mars, the landing site of the Spirit Rover at the Gusev Crater is now called the Columbia Memorial Station. In Cherokee County, a new reservoir, still on the drawing board, will be called Lake Columbia instead of Lake Eastex.

And at Arlington National Cemetery, a bronze replica of the mission patch is the centerpiece of a memorial.

"They were pilots, engineers and scientists, all motivated by a fire within, a passionate eternal flame within each of their souls that compelled them to live lives of distinction, and to bring the heavens ever closer to our grasp," former NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe said at the dedication.

Months before the scheduled lift-off, crew members huddle together, with creative juices flowing, to design the mission logo.

For STS-107, which was purely a scientific mission, the scientists-turned-artists chose the symbol for microgravity, a letter g, which flows into the rays of the astronaut symbol.

The mission inclination is portrayed at precisely 39 degrees relative to the Earth's horizon, with the sunrise representing the on-board experiments and the dawn of a new era for microgravity research.

The astronauts also selected the constellation Columba, represented by a dove, to symbolize peace and seven stars to commemorate the seven astronauts.

Each crew member's name is inscribed, including a type of asterisk, in the form of the Israeli flag, to denote the payload specialist who was the first person from that country to fly on a U.S. space mission.

As another tribute to the sacrifice of the Columbia crew, the Cherokeean Herald published the STS-107 logo on the front page of the newspaper for one year after the tragedy and vowed to mark the anniversary each year.

The families of the Columbia 7 will likely spend the day in quiet reflection of their loss, juxtaposed against the ultimate sacrifice an American can make to the country.

Scores of East Texans will also look to the heavens and contemplate on what was lost and marvel at what was found.