August 28, 2008
In their words
A look at the seven Columbia astronauts
They were hometown heroes, much-loved sons, daughters, husbands and wives. They lived lives on earth and among the stars. They talked about the mundane and the magnificent, and people wanted to to hear what they had to say.
Here is a look at the seven Columbia astronauts, in their own words, as reported by wire services, television networks and their newspapers, both hometown and college:
David Brown
David Brown, 46, was a Navy captain, pilot and doctor who became an astronaut in 1996. Columbia's mission was his first spaceflight. In September, Brown, a 1978 graduate of the College of William and Mary, spoke to freshmen at the college's opening convocation. The college newspaper, The Flat Hat, reported:
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"In his speech, Brown attributed the academic rigor of the College and his participation on the varsity gymnastics squad as influential to his development.
'The broad liberal arts scope prepares you to undertake almost anything,' Brown said. 'And when you're on the gymnastics team, you need to have a competitive streak with other people but at the same time you should also be a team player.'
". . . Besides his collegiate athletic involvement, Brown was also a Resident Assistant and performed in the Circus Kingdom as an acrobat, seven-foot unicyclist and stilt walker. In addition to doing shows at Busch Gardens, the traveling performers also made excursions to almost every state in New England.
"'When I was a freshman, it was never in my mind that I would go to med school. It was never in my mind that I would land a jet on a ship. When I thought about being an astronaut, it was the coolest thing I could imagine but I could not see the path for how I would do that.'
"'I didn't set any records [at the College]. I applied to Navy flight training. I was rejected. I reapplied. I got in. I applied to NASA, I was rejected. I reapplied. I got in. There's something to be said here about not being afraid to have vision, not being afraid to take risks and the real value of persistence.'"
In another interview, Brown was asked about the risks of space flight. "I made a decision that is part of my job, I would incur some real risk as a routine part of my job when I joined the Navy and started flying ... And I think that was a decision that I made some years ago and the decision to go fly in space is just an extension of that.
Laurel Clark
Laurel Clark, 41, was a diving medical officer aboard submarines and a flight surgeon before she became an astronaut in 1996. She was from Racine, Wis., and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel carefully followed her journey.
She had an 8-year-old son, and took a sheet with her from his first-grade class. The children had put their fingerprints on it, along with their photos.
"This has been a great experience for me," she told the newspaper in an interview from space. "The first couple of days you don't always feel too well. I feel wonderful now. The first couple of days you adjust to the fluid shifting, how to fly through space without hitting things or anybody else. But then after a couple of days you get in a groove. It's just an incredibly magical place."
She described watching the sunset from space.
"There's a flash - the whole payload bay turns this rosy pink. It only lasts about 15 seconds and then it's gone. It's very ethereal and extremely beautiful."
At one point, the temperature rose to 84 degrees in the part of the module where the crew exercised.
"A pina colada would have been really nice," Clark said, commenting after the problem had been fixed. "We're all very comfy right now."
During the mission, the crew oversaw some student experiments that involved ants, spiders, bees, fish and silkworms.
"One of the silkworm cocoons had just recently hatched," she said. "There was a moth in there, and it still had its wings crumpled up, and it was just starting to pump its wings up. Life continues in lots of places, and life is a magical thing."
Copyright © 2008, The Baltimore Sun
