Comm Check...: The Final Flight of Shuttle Columbia by Cabbage Michael & Harwood William

Author:Cabbage, Michael & Harwood, William [Cabbage, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Free Press
Published: 2009-11-20T05:00:00+00:00

It was at an altitude and an airspeed that was probably not survivable. We don’t have confirmation of that, but I don’t want to give you a false sense that they’re OK.’ And then everybody just breaks out in tears and crying, and the kids, some of them were screaming. It was horrible. And then everybody just starts hugging and crying. And the crew quarters staff comes in, the family escorts are there, everybody’s just crying.”

Cabana remembered Mike Anderson’s kids “turning to their mom and just exploding in tears and hugging her, one on each side.”

And that set Iain off as well.

“They started screaming, they were about his age, and then Iain started to scream. But then he got over it,” Clark said, “and he was crying, and then somebody had the foresight to take all the young kids down the hall to another little lounge there. Barbara Morgan was there. She’s been through this [as a back-up astronaut in the Challenger disaster]. I remember talking to her about it right afterwards. I said, ‘This must be horrible for you.’ And she was so calm, she knew what to do with the kids. She got them in there, and I mean 30 minutes later, they’re just playing, some are watching TV or playing video games or board games.

“And Iain’s in there, and I’m like, you know, a wreck. Iain said something to me. He said, ‘You’re bumming me out because you’re so sad.’ And I said, ‘Well, I’m sorry. You’re going to have to help me through this.’”

Ross stayed with the families a few minutes and then escorted Rona Ramon and her children to Ilan’s bedroom so she could call home to family in Israel.

“Then I went back down, started running the rest of the operation,” Ross said. “I had to find a way to get them home.”

The families had intended to spend the night in the Cocoa Beach area while four of the astronauts underwent detailed physical exams and post-landing medical tests as part of the mission’s research. They were not prepared to fly back to Houston. Room keys were collected, and support teams visited each family’s motel room, packing their bags for them, paying the bills, and taking the luggage to the nearby Cape Canaveral Air Force Station runway. Others called local police departments around Johnson, asking for officers to stand by outside each family’s home. Ross asked Kennedy officials to provide an executive jet to help ferry the families home. It would join two jets from Johnson that were already on standby.

O’Keefe left the Launch Control Center around 11:20 a.m. and headed for crew quarters. He spent a quarter of an hour consoling family members before calling the White House to arrange the presidential conference call. Bush offered the families his sympathy, saying the nation appreciated their sacrifice. He said the astronauts had dedicated their lives to a noble objective and that a grateful nation would never forget.

“I was numb,” said Lani McCool. “I know he said something about prayers and their hearts being with us.

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