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Thanks to the Crew of the Space Shuttle Columbia and to Other Great Risk Takers

By Theresa Fritz Camoriano

We were all very surprised when we learned that the Columbia had broken apart during its return to Earth, and we mourn the loss of the seven crew members.  Most of us (I, for one) would be too chicken to take a flight in space, considering it to be too risky.  But the astronauts competed with many other eager risk-takers to be able to participate in a space flight.  I am glad they were able to achieve their dream and to enjoy the thrill of being in outer space before they died.  I have a great appreciation for these astronauts and for the many other risk-takers who have enriched our lives by being willing to explore and push back frontiers.

I grew up with the space program, and it was an exciting time.  At the same time that we were preparing for nuclear attack by learning to hide under our desks, we were also enjoying the feats of the astronauts.  My “first grader of the week” award was a construction paper replica of the Mercury program’s Freedom 7 rocket that sent America’s first astronaut, Alan Shepard, into space on May 5, 1961.  Our school established an excellent foreign language program, largely as a result of the Sputnik launch, which occurred in Oct., 1957.  The Russians had taken us completely by surprise, because we had not been monitoring Russian language publications, so our school entered into a foreign language push, which gave us kids the opportunity to learn French beginning in the third grade and Russian beginning in the seventh grade.  However, in the summer before I started the seventh grade, my father moved our family from Connecticut to Texas, when he became a sales rep supporting the fuel cells that were supplied by Pratt and Whitney Aircraft to NASA’s Apollo program. 

My brother and I promptly joined a swim team near NASA, getting to know other kids on the team, including some whose fathers were astronauts.  We were very shocked and saddened when the Apollo 1 crew died in a flash fire on January 27, 1967, killing the astronauts Grissom, Chaffee and White.  It was a tremendous loss.  But the Apollo project continued, with many others still willing to take the risks.

I remember how exciting it was when man first stepped on the moon, and we felt ourselves to be a real part of it, with Dad at NASA supporting the mission.  And I remember the shock when our family came home from an outing and turned on the news to hear Walter Cronkite, the man all America trusted, telling the world that the fuel cells (my father’s equipment) had caused an explosion on Apollo 13.  My father drove his ’57 T-bird as fast as he could to NASA, and we didn’t see him for several days, as everyone worked and struggled to try to reconstruct what had happened and to try to get those men home.  Fortunately, with teamwork, tremendous brain power, good old Yankee ingenuity, and good luck, NASA was able to bring the crew home safely.  Unfortunately, Walter Cronkite never did go on the air to tell the American people that he had been wrong, and that my father’s fuel cells had not caused the explosion.  I am glad that the media has been much more cautious about suggesting possible causes for the failure this time.

As I was finishing high school, I had the opportunity to become involved in the Apollo-Soyuz program, in which the Americans and the Russians joined together in space.  One summer, I was a volunteer translator for the wife of the head of the Russian space program, accompanying her for shopping outings and parties.  That was fun!  Then, I spent the next summer typing documents in Russian on an IBM Selectric typewriter with a Cyrillic alphabet ball.  But, by that time, people were losing interest in the space program.  Man had landed on the moon, and it seemed that no more frontiers were being challenged.  As the Apollo program wound down, so did my father’s job, and he moved on to another career in designing fire protection systems for chemical plants.

By the time the Challenger exploded, on January 28, 1986, I was a mother myself, and I couldn’t imagine taking the risk of space flight and leaving young children at home as Christa McAuliffe did.  But she and many others took that risk, and we have all benefited from the scientific progress that has been made thanks to them. 

We all benefit from the pioneers and risk-takers who are clever enough and brave enough to take the chances that most of us won’t take.  From Christopher Columbus, who took a risk and discovered America, to the members of the space program, to medical researchers and their risk-taking patients who have been willing to try experimental medicines, artificial hearts, and other risky treatments, we have benefited.  We also have benefited by the progress made by entrepreneurs, who are willing to risk their livelihood trying to serve the public.  Thanks to them, we enjoy comfortable homes with central heating and air conditioning, Velcro®, reliable cars, cell phones, comfortable clothing, digital cameras, life-saving medicines, and microwave dinners! 

Of course, nobody’s life is without risk.  Our founding fathers took a great risk when they broke away from England to establish a country that respected individual liberty.  We take a risk when we choose a career and when we get married.  We take a huge risk when we decide to have children – committing ourselves to caring for them for many years into the future.  We risk our lives every time we get into a car, but we also risk them when we stay home.  We take a risk when we invest our money in business ventures, but also when we stick it under our mattress.  We take a great risk when we stand up for what we believe is right – but perhaps many of us don’t realize that we take an even greater long-term risk when we passively go along with the crowd.  Today, I’d especially like to thank the conscious risk-takers – those who intentionally take on the challenges and strive to push back the frontiers of ignorance, including the crew of Columbia.  Many thanks to you all!

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