What is being done for the astronauts families? And how can I send sympathies?
A fund is being set up. The Space Shuttle Childrens Trust Fund was established with the support of NASA after the 1986 Challenger disaster. The fund, which raised $1 million, will now work to raise money for Columbia families. NASA held a private memorial for the astronauts Feb. 4 at the Johnson Space Center. President Bush and the first lady Laura Bush were accompanied on Air Force One by Neil Armstrong, the first astronaut to walk on the moon. Former senator and astronaut John Glenn and his wife, Annie, also attended, as did NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe. Kathie Scobee Fulgham, whose father died on the space shuttle Challenger, was to speak to the children of the Columbia astronauts at the memorial. A memorial ceremony for Columbia’s astronauts was held Feb. 7 at the Kennedy Space Center. Florida Governor Jeb Bush, Administrator O’Keefe and former astronaut Robert Crippen, Columbia’s first pilot on its maiden flight, STS-1, on April 12, 1981, attended.
