Approximately 20 UW-Madison students and community members attended a vigil honoring the crew of the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster Monday night. Despite the small turnout, organizers said the ceremony went well and offered those in attendance an opportunity to mourn.
Chris Bulla, a UW-Madison junior and squadron commander of Arnold Air Society--a service organization for Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps cadets--spoke about Columbia's scientific mission and praised the seven men and women who gave their lives for the advancement of human understanding.
\This crew represented the best that the world had to offer,"" Bulla said. ""They, and all of the other astronauts in the U.S. space program, knew the risks associated with space flight, but so valued their goal that they were willing to sacrifice their lives in its pursuit.""
In addition to Bulla's presentation recapping the shuttle's voyage and demise, the 20-minute vigil also included a group prayer led by Kristy Rochon and the reading of a poem and Psalm 23 by Rabbi Andrea Lerner.
UW-Madison Chancellor John Wiley joined Rochon and Lerner for a candle ceremony, lighting seven total candles, one for each victim, as brief biographies of the astronauts were read.
Kat Bos, a UW-Madison junior and chapter president of Silver Wings, a campus service organization, said she thought the vigil tastefully honored the lives of the astronauts.
""I just wish more people could have shown up,"" Bos said.
Bulla said the vigil was advertised by mass e-mails and flyers posted in dormitories.
""I think the people who felt they had to mourn had the opportunity to do so, and I'm glad they chose to do so,"" Bulla said.
Those who came were encouraged to sign cards that Bos said would be sent to NASA.
NASA officials are still not sure what caused the 22-year-old Space Shuttle Columbia to explode as it reentered the earth's atmosphere Feb. 1, showering several southern states with debris.
Laurel Clark, a Racine native who earned her undergraduate degree in Zoology and her doctorate in medicine at UW-Madison, died in the accident. It was her first space flight.
