'It's a real kick in the teeth, just when we need it least'

The Mourning

IT was a tragedy that seemed to dampen the best of the American dream. A dream that, despite the country teetering on the brink of war, technology could peacefully overcome the last frontier.

Yesterday morning as the news of Columbia's crash rolled through America's time zones and the vast nation awoke to another scarcely believable tragedy, it was a bit like September 11, 2001, all over again.

Fewer than 17 months after the attacks on the Twin Towers, the most powerful nation on earth seemed again to have been dealt a national body blow.

It was to have been another celebration of the accomplishments of science. The majority of the astronauts were scientists, after all. Only two were former military pilots.

The crew was also a slice of a multi-cultural contemporary US: an African-American, an immigrant Asian-American woman born in India, a bachelor, a father of four, a surgeon, and a pilot from Israel.

One was an amateur circus acrobat and stilt-walker in his spare time, and another was a keen guitar player.

Six of the seven astronauts were married, and five of them had children. They would co-operate and their work would help humankind.

And unlike September 11, this was pure tragedy, not an attack on the world's superpower. The Twin Towers and the Columbia, the oldest shuttle in use, were both American icons and both are now gone.

This time there was nothing of the fury, racism and xenophobia that ignited the US after September 11 even before the culprits were known, or after the Oklahoma City bombing before it was understood that the killer was homegrown.

Within an hour of the news breaking, the White House was pointedly saying that President George Bush would hold an emergency press briefing and that it would be on a "domestic matter".

"This day has brought a horrible news and a terrible tragedy to our country," Bush said.

"The Columbia is lost, but our journey into space will go on," he continued, his comments echoing those of his Republican predecessor Ronald Reagan on the day the Challenger shattered in the sky.

Across the US, people were glued to TV pictures of Columbia disintegrating as it descended over Texas. News channels, which had been dominated by reports of the Iraq crisis, immediately switched to give blanket coverage of the disaster.

"This is terrible, really terrible. I haven't felt as shocked as this since September 11," said New Yorker Jennifer Bond, who watched the news unfold as she ate her breakfast yesterday morning Texan journalist John Pronk, who shot much of the footage of the crash, said it was not until he returned to his office and watched the video that he realised the full significance of what happened.

"I was telling myself 'this must be what is meant to happen'. I couldn't believe it could be falling apart in front of my eyes."

Many Americans also feared terrorism, especially as the shuttle was carrying the first Israeli astronaut, Ilan Ramon, a former colonel in Israel's air force.

In a country where bloodshed with the Palestinians has made tragedy a daily occurrence and driven the economy into a slump, the launching of Israel's first astronaut was the one few tonics to distract people from the malaise.

The landing was shown live on Israeli television. Ilan Ramon's father, Eliezer Wolferman, had been brought into the studios of Israel's Channel 2 news to talk with interviewers during the touchdown.

In the initial moments when communications were lost with the shuttle crew, he reassured the interviewers that "it will be alright."

As the dimensions of what had happened became clear, Wolferman left the console to absorb the loss of his son.

"We are in shock, everything was working by the book until now," said Gad Ramon, Ilan's older brother, who watched the landing live from his home in northern Israel.

"Before this happened we were in a state of euphoria because this was the dream of Ilan."

In a central Tel Aviv shopping mall, passers-by crowded in front of a television to watch in disbelief news reports of the crash.

"Ramon was like a ray of light. The mission put us on the map with all of the big countries like the US, France and Russia," said Ben Yitzhak, a sales assistant.

"Now the crash erases all of that. It's like it never happened."

In the same way that Israelis seemed unable to digest news of the loss of Ramon, thousands of people in distant northern India braved a cold winter's night to ring temple bells and pray for aerospace engineer Kalpana Chawla, a symbol of pride for Indians, and another of Columbia's seven-member crew.

"When you are in such a job, then the family has to be ready for such news," said Chawla's older brother, Sanjay.

While Palestinian President Yasser Arafat offered his condolences to the six American families and the Israeli family who lost their loved ones in the catastrophe, elsewhere in the Middle East many Iraqis were less sympathetic.

Immediate popular reaction in Baghdad to the loss of the space shuttle was that it was God's retribution.

"We are happy that it broke up. God wants to show that his might is greater than the Americans. They have encroached on our country. God is avenging us," said Iraqi government employee Abdul Jabbar al- Quraishi.

Tomorrow begins a remarkably crucial week for the Bush administration in solidifying plans to declare a war on Iraq and initiating diplomatic talks with North Korea.

"It's a little hard to imagine how the White House will be able to dovetail its address on all three of these crises in the coming weeks. It's going to present a major challenge to the president," said George Stephanopoulos, a political analyst for ABC News.

Bush will need to clarify almost immediately how yesterday's crisis fits in with the grand scheme of things and if it will delay Colin Powell's UN briefing on Wednesday.

For the time being America's news anchors and reporters are preoccupied.

Until yesterday's crash, the shuttle's mission had attracted very little attention as the nation geared up for military action aimed at toppling Saddam Hussein.

"It's a real kick in the teeth just when we need it least," was how one ordinary American put it.

How long it will occupy American hearts and minds only Iraq and the next few weeks will determine.

Copyright 2003 SMG Sunday Newspapers Ltd.
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