SCSIIT Tribute

After Columbia STS-107

SCSIIT Tribute

[REDACTED]

Reading the SCSIIT Report was like this

"Identification of the remains relied primarily on DNA testing and dental records."

It hurt to read the SCSIIT report...it really hurt. It took me three weeks. I had to be careful how I opened it, and I had the public version. I opened it to a picture of Laurel's seatbelt reel, the one with the busted lug, two pages ahead of my place.

I had to set it down for ten minutes.

I don't want to think about what they redacted.

That must have been only a tiny sample of the cup given the Spacecraft Crew Survival Integrated Investigation Team (SCSIIT) and the families of Rick, Willie, Laurel, K.C., Ilan, David, and Michael.

The portion I have taken doesn't lessen theirs at all...it might even make it worse. The best outcome is to lessen or prevent such suffering in future accidents.

United Airways 1549 ditched in the Hudson River while I was reading the SCSIIT report. The best of 106 years of powered flight experience came together and saved the lives of over one hundred fifty-five people from aviation's second oldest problem: bird strike. Everything went right. A spacecraft will eventually have that chance. Perhaps it could be mine?

The picture is edited from two frames of the anime Ayashi no Ceres, (c) Yuu Watase. Aya, the depicted character, is voiced by Yumi Kakazu. They come from about 14.5 minutes into Episode 15 (without commercials), equivalent to about a third of the way through Volume 8 of the manga. Her boyfriend has had his memory erased and does not remember her.