Continuing coverage of a heartbreaking event.

BBSNews - 2003-02-01 -- This is a truly difficult day for all of us. Many of us were standing alongside the runway waiting to celebrate their triumphant return after a 16-day science mission. I think you could tell from the down link that they loved what they were doing and they thought what they were doing was extremely important, pushing back those boundaries in science.

At 9 o'clock we heard that they had lost data from the space craft, and it appears that that was at about 200,000 feet and about mach 18.

The loss of data was somewhere over north-central Texas. And at the planned landing time of 9:16 we initiated our contingency action plan, called the Rescue Coordination Center and initiated a search and rescue effort.

Sadly, I think from the video that's available, does not appear that there were any survivors.

The immediate focus is on the crew families, and we spent some time with them. The president called. I'd have to say the families are bearing up with an incredible amount of dignity, considering their loss. We all grieve for them, we all pray with them for the crew. But one thing came across loud and clear when visiting with them, is they knew that the crew was absolutely dedicated to the mission that they were performing. And I think you could see that in the video down link. They believed in what they were doing.

And in the conversations with the crew and their families, they said that we must find what happened and fix it and move on, and we can't let their sacrifice be in vain.

Today was a very stark reminder that this is a very risky endeavor, pushing back the frontiers in outer space. And after 113 flights, unfortunately people have a tendency to look at it as something that is more or less routine. Well, I can assure you, it is not. Each and every time I flew, each and every time my colleagues flew, we treated that with the respect it deserved from a professional standpoint.

And I have to say that, as the one responsible for shuttle and station within the NASA, that I know that the people of NASA did everything possible preparing for this flight to make it as perfect as possible.

My promise to the crew and to the crew families is that the investigation that we have just launched will find the cause, we'll fix it, and then we'll move on.

Thank you.