The crew of the space shuttle Columbia, from left, mission specialist Michael Anderson, pilot William McCool, commander Rick Husband, mission specialists David Brown, Laurel Clark, Isreali astronaut Ilan Ramon, and Kalpana Chawla wave to a media gathering during launch rehearsal in Cape Canaveral Dec. 20, 2002. Space shuttle Columbia apparently disintegrated in flames over Texas on Saturday, Feb. 1, 2003 minutes before it was to land in Florida. TV video showed what appeared to be falling debris, as NASA declared an emergency and warned residents to beware of falling objects. (AP Photo/Peter Cosgrove, File)
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long delirious, burning blue,
I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew -
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high unsurpassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand and touched the face of God.