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02-02-2003, 03:56 AM
Numb Nation Weeps For Its Fallen Stars (http://www.nypost.com/news/nationalnews/67846.htm)
By ANDY SOLTIS, DAN MANGAN, KENNETH C. LOVETT and CYNTHIA R. FAGEN
February 2, 2003 -- The flags are flying at half-staff today as the nation mourns its fallen stars, seven astronauts whose spaceship Columbia broke up in the skies over Texas.
"To have this happen with 15 minutes to go until it was over was just unbelievable," exclaimed Daniel Salton, brother of astronaut Laurel Clark, 41.
"I'm just so glad she got to get up to space and got to see it because that has been a dream for a long time."
Clark's father, Robert Salton, watched in disbelief from his home in Albuquerque, N.M., as his daughter's shuttle disintegrated. Shaking with emotion, he insisted "she was doing exactly what she really believed in and she had been working hard to achieve it."
In Oklahoma City, astronaut Michael Anderson's sister, Joanne, said she had to "turn the TV off."
"What they said is nothing that I want to believe.
"It was what he had dreamed of doing," Joanne said of her 42-year-old brother, the flight's payload commander. "We knew when he set his sights on that, that's what he would do."
Linda Gauthier, whose husband, Cliff, was astronaut David Brown's college gymnastics coach, said all of a sudden the news was broadcasting showing debris hurtling toward the ground.
"We pretty much realized then that there was no hope that the astronauts would be back on Earth safe," a tearful Gauthier said. "It's been very devastating."
...
CLick here to read more (http://www.nypost.com/news/nationalnews/67846.htm)
By ANDY SOLTIS, DAN MANGAN, KENNETH C. LOVETT and CYNTHIA R. FAGEN
February 2, 2003 -- The flags are flying at half-staff today as the nation mourns its fallen stars, seven astronauts whose spaceship Columbia broke up in the skies over Texas.
"To have this happen with 15 minutes to go until it was over was just unbelievable," exclaimed Daniel Salton, brother of astronaut Laurel Clark, 41.
"I'm just so glad she got to get up to space and got to see it because that has been a dream for a long time."
Clark's father, Robert Salton, watched in disbelief from his home in Albuquerque, N.M., as his daughter's shuttle disintegrated. Shaking with emotion, he insisted "she was doing exactly what she really believed in and she had been working hard to achieve it."
In Oklahoma City, astronaut Michael Anderson's sister, Joanne, said she had to "turn the TV off."
"What they said is nothing that I want to believe.
"It was what he had dreamed of doing," Joanne said of her 42-year-old brother, the flight's payload commander. "We knew when he set his sights on that, that's what he would do."
Linda Gauthier, whose husband, Cliff, was astronaut David Brown's college gymnastics coach, said all of a sudden the news was broadcasting showing debris hurtling toward the ground.
"We pretty much realized then that there was no hope that the astronauts would be back on Earth safe," a tearful Gauthier said. "It's been very devastating."
...
CLick here to read more (http://www.nypost.com/news/nationalnews/67846.htm)