daverea.com

February 1st, 2003 was a Saturday. Here in Rochester, it was a snow-covered day illuminated by bright sunshine – I woke up after a late night of collegiate something-or-other to the glare of the sunlit snow out my apartment window, and a muffled newscast from the living room.

I tossed on a bathrobe and wandered, blinking off sleep, out of my room. The first thing I saw was a shaky news-camera shot of a fireball streaking across a blue sky. And the first thing I heard was the anchor announcing that the space shuttle Colombia had been lost.

While the national tragedy of the Colombia disaster affected a lot of people throughout the country, I think engineers were hit especially hard. I believe the world’s engineers that day grieved the loss of Colombia with the same magnitude of emotion that engineers the world over felt when that same orbiter thundered to life and lifted off the pad for the first time in 1981. They felt inspiring joy, and twenty two years later, we watched the newscasts and were washed over by a corresponding sorrow.

In all honesty, when I learned that a few hours ago, the countdown to STS-114′s launch began, my skin prickled with goosebumps and my eyes filled with tears. Despite my absolute non-involvement, I’m overwhelmed by fraternal pride for the dedicated men and women of my profession that have brought the space shuttle Discovery back to the launch pad – and with patriotism for the amazing nation that backed them up.

On Wednesday afternoon, you can bet your bottom dollar I’ll be watching as the brave crew of Discovery remind me why I love being an engineer, why I’m grateful to be able to witness this history being made, and why I love being an American.