Stephanie Herseth Sandlin: “Mr. Speaker, this weekend our Nation was shaken with the news of a terrible tragedy. After a 16-day mission into space…”

“Mr. Speaker, this weekend our Nation was shaken with the news of a terrible tragedy. After a 16-day mission into space, just 16 minutes from home, seven brave astronauts unexpectedly changed their course and returned to the heavens. In what was hoped to be a joyful day of homecoming, it became a day filled with grief as these brave explorers lost their lives 40 miles above the piney woods of east Texas. Yesterday in Houston many of us said good-bye to the pioneers of our time who manned the Space Shuttle Columbia's 28th mission. We expressed our condolences and sympathies to the families left at home, to NASA, to President Bush for the loss to our Nation, to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel and Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee of India. We all share a tremendous sense of loss. Earlier Saturday morning, thousands of pieces of the Space Shuttle Columbia rained down in a rain of sorrow in parts of Texas and Louisiana.”