European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - February 4, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse Tuesday february 4, 1966 the stars and stripes Page 7 Nelson describes surge of energy7 at liftoff or a up Nelson a Fia the House space sub committee chairman who Rode on a shuttle High Jan. 12, described the surge of Energy at liftoff and Sching h ,0 darkness on the Way to orbit a the Ouirl just pics a my memory of those last four minutes is a blur until we get Down to 31 seconds Nelson said in an article in sunday s editions of the Washington Post. That is a major Mark because then Theon Board computers take Over everything regarding the countdown. The automatic fencing in the last 31 seconds is con trailed by the four inboard computers with a fifth serving As a i. Am sitting Here waiting knowing that in seconds the three main engines in the Tail of the shuttle Are going to they Don t throttle up properly the computer is going to shut them Down automatically before the solid rocket boost ers ignite. Once the solid rocket boosters ignite that s it. You can t shut them the engines ignite. I feel a real surgeon Energy. There is a Roar of noise now. And there is a vibration with All the engines going and the ship still strapped Down on the am still prepared Down to to minus Zero for the possibility that we May Haven Crnic shutdown and abort the mis Sion. We have had two shutdowns i to thinking we could have another. Are then the thrust at to minus s a Jolt. It s a Roar. I turn my head to the left look out the window and All that ican see is Gray and that is the Gray steel of the Gantry. It takes us about seven seconds before we Clear the Tower. It s a slow Rise and there is a definite surge of Energy and vibration. As we Clear the Tower i am still seeing the ground an the next picture that i have out the win Dow to my Surprise is not the ground but darkness and the lights of Cape Canave ral. That confuses me the commander is talking us through the liftoff. He s talking to us about every thing that is happening. We Are climbing we re Clearing the Tower. At about 10 or11 seconds the Pilot says we Are starting our Roll Man Euver. And that s when i see Light turn to darkness As the ship Rolls Over 90 degrees and my View turns from the right morning sky to the ground. I Stop looking out the is wrong. I hear the Pilot saying we have a malfunction. He is talk ing to us in the Cabin on the intercom not to the ground and he s saying we begot a helium leak. He immediately jumps on it and starts explaining to us what he i doing. The Pilot reconfigures some controls to Stop the does t even Tell Mission control about the leak until he has solved the problem. Then he tells them what the situation takes him 10 to 15 seconds to fix the leak. He has spent hundreds of hours inthe simulator on the ground preparing for something like this so he knows what Todo. The Way it happens underscores that it s not the people on the ground who Fly this machine it s the commander and the Pilot. Even though everything is programmed according to a computer if something goes wrong they be got to know what to do. After 25 or 30 seconds of flight the throttle the main engines Back to 65 per cent of Power. They Are throttled Dow that Way for 10 or 15 seconds because of the air pressure that s building up. When they get past that dense atmosphere they throttle Back up to 104 percent. That full Power about 75 seconds into the night. I Don t hear or feel the throttling is still so much noise at this Point because of the solid rocket motors. It Sonly after they separate two minutes into the night that it suddenly becomes quiet. This enormous surge of Energy is hurtling us almost straight up. I am in sort of wonderment. I am going in a direction that i have never gone before which is straight up. With All that Energy at Myrback and All that memorial services held throughout the . By the associated press with prayers and tears the nation remembered the lost Crew of space shuttle challenger at Church services and in special memorial services where the astronaut grew up Wen to school or got married. We should remember but not pity them they we redoing what they wanted to do said the Rev. Warren longer at first United methodist Church of Cocoa Cuch on Florida s space coast near Cape canaveral. At St. Teresa s Catholic Church in Titusville fla.,just across the River from the Kennedy space Center the Crew was remembered each by name Gregory Jarvis Chrisla Mcauliffe Ronald Mcnair e on Onizuka Judith Resnik Francis Scobee Michael Smith. In Beaufort , Smith s picture was fastened to on of seven nag poles at the City limits. A sign on the pole read he lived Well laughed often and loved a qty thing. He accomplished his task and left this world a better place than he found Beaufort s auditorium was full an hour before a me Morial service sunday and red carnations and White chrysanthemums sent by president and mrs. Reagan made up the largest of the bouquets crowding the stage. Where would America be today without those whose courage and Confidence in themselves gave them the determination to push Back our frontiers and open new horizons gov. Jim Martin said. Mike Smith was that kind of heroic Smith s family wept As a formation of jets streaked overhead with one peeling away in the missing Man fttou�tn350 people jammed the Wesley United meth Rist Church of take f City s.c., for a memorial service for Mcnair. And hundreds More stood outside the red Brick Church listening to loudspeakers. Mcnair was determined to be upward bound and heaven bound the Rev. Jesse Jackson said As Mcnair widow Chery and three year old son. Ronald listened. He 7 the wings of the morning and now his soul is at together in one family said the Rev. Patrick that time there was no Man or woman there was no White or Black no jew or Gentile no Christian or Buddhist we were simply All in the family of in Detroit where Jarvis was born in 1944, the Bell atthe old mariners Church tolled once for each astronaut said the Rev. Richard Ingalls. The same Bell is rung 29times every year for those who died aboard the great lakes ship Edmund Fitzgerald which went Down intake Superior on nov. 1 11 975. Ingalls recalled the words of the 19th-Century poet Robert Browning a but a Man s reach must exceed his grasp or what s a heaven for at St Jeremiah Church in Framingham mass.,where Christa Mcauliffe was married the altar was decked with yellow and White chrysanthemums donated by her parents Grace and Edward Corrigan. Our grief is nothing compared to theirs the Rev. Johns. Morris told about 200 worshippers at the 1 1 . Mass. Mcauliffe s husband and children were expected to attend a private funeral mass monday at St. Peter Schurch in Concord n.h., with Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston officiating. In Auburn wash., the Rev. Donald Beattie said his Nephew shuttle commander Scobee and his Crew mates were just a step we be said Good night to them Here but we re going to say Good morning to them up there Beattie told More than 600 people at the Bible Baptist Church in a thu Mcnair said his brother received Many Honor Saft his fim Shule Mission in 1984. But was most Ched i that a Street in his Hometown was named for a Black Man who had once picked cucumbers mass parishioners at it Paul episcopal Church remembered me a photo Cheryl Mcnair with Ion Ronald. At memorial service for astronauts Nair s Faith. He had attended the Church while studying at the Massachusetts Institute of technology and had met his wife there. Returning to the Church lost october Mcnair had told friends when i get in that rocket if there Are seven Astro nauts there the eighth will be Jesus Christ the Rev. Brenda Payne said at an afternoon memorial service. In Kailua Kona. Hawaii More than 300 people attended memorial mass at St. Michael s Catholic Church for Onizuka who was a Buddhist. It was the last of four services at the Church which was full each time. For a period of a week the United states was drawn f Scobee s Home town. In Huntsville. Ala., Home of Nasa s Marshall spaceflight Center shuttle Veteran David Leestma called on americans to turn the challenger tragedy into a Triumph. I know How the Crew of challenger would choose i they were still with us Leestma told 2,000 people at a memorial service in the von Braun civic Center. Eve though our dreams took a blow our dreams Are still alive. We will press gov. George Wallace told the crowd there cannot be dreams without a Nightmare. If the seven could speak to us they would say carry on reach on dream on. We must continue their Salt Lake City the mormon Tabernacle choir in its weekly nationwide broadcast music and the spoke word paid tribute to the challenger Crew whose lives and missions reflected Man s desire to be linked with Power beyond himself said announcer Spencer Kinard. Seven gun Salute honors astronauts in new York Inu Vnuk Jupi howitzers Koch said As several Hundred new yorker looked on. The mayor intoned the names of the seven dead astronauts and said they died in the service of their country and the serv ice of All Mankind. Their memory will be with us then tired seven rounds from a 77mm pack howitzer each with a minute of silence in Between As onlookers shivered in the winds and jammed fingers in their ears for each Boom. A Lone bugler played taps a militia re leased seven Black balloons into the winds and the somber crowd walked away. Parks commissioner Henry Stern announced that a Block in Spanish Harlem would be named Mcnair place in Honor of Ronald Mcnair a challenger Mission specialist with ties to new York. Mcnair place on 122nd Street be tween third and Lexington avenues was once the site of an Auto body shop run by the astronaut s father Stern said. He said the name change was suggested by City councilwoman Carolyn Maloney who rep resents that part of the City. This is seven individual deaths that combined to make an enormous tragedy forthe whole country Koch said. They died in a special Way in their search for the future. It was a painful event that affected everybody in
