The NASA community is diverse. Employees are of all different ages, races, nationalities, and backgrounds. But it is rare to find a group of people so similar. Every NASA employee is characterized by the love of the unknown, the desire to discover our role in the universe, and a delight in allowing an almost childlike curiosity to dictate where those explorations lead them. To be so dedicated to such a large undertaking requires this sort of passion.
I need to keep reminding myself that it is with this same passion that astronauts Rick Husband, Willie McCool, Michael Anderson, David Brown, Kalpana Chawla, Laurel Clark, and Ilan Ramon went into space. These astronauts are heroes not because they died, but because even though they knew their lives could be at risk, they believed enough in the exploration of space to go anyway.And they believed in the exploration of space because, in the end, it is the ultimate embodiment of human hope. Hope is the wish for something — an expectation that in the end our desires will be met.
It comes from curiosity, from knowledge, from compassion, and from beauty.