Students Remember Astronauts in Service

With seven lighted candles burning on the altar of Memorial Church yesterday evening, University President Lawrence H. Summers and about 70 others honored the memories of the seven astronauts who died when the space shuttle Columbia (STS-107) disintegrated over Texas Saturday morning.

Summers said the Harvard community should come together in support for the lives and work of the seven dead Columbia crew members.

“For the loss of all that lay ahead of them as lovers and friends and contributors to our society, we grieve,” he said.

Summers’ address was the centerpiece of a memorial service for the astronauts—six Americans and one Israeli—which was sponsored by more than 17 Harvard student groups.

Josh M. Mendelsohn ’04, president of the Harvard Republican Club, began organizing the service after hearing about the destruction of the shuttle on Saturday morning.

Mendelsohn, who grew up in southern Florida, said he was fascinated by the NASA space program. He said the shock that he felt upon hearing about the destruction of the Columbia was reminiscent of his feelings in 1986 when the crew of the Challenger was killed due to a malfunction shortly after lift-off.

When he discovered that Harvard had organized a service in Memorial Church after the Challenger crew disappeared, he quickly decided to coordinate a similar memorial for the Columbia astronauts.

Mendelsohn elicited support from student groups and the Rev. Mark D.W. Edington, who led the service.

Edington emphasized that the service was intended to bring together the Harvard community, regardless of faith.

Jennifer R. Schiffman ’06 read a psalm, and Mark T. Silvestri ’05 and Lauren K. Truesdell ’06 led those assembled in passages from the hymnal.

Standing at Memorial Church’s guilded-eagle podium, Prital S. Kadakia ’06 read John Gillespie Magee Jr.’s poem “High Flight” in honor of the dead astronauts.

Summers spoke slowly as he praised the lost astronauts for being heroes who faced physical danger in the pursuit of knowledge.

“As it has been said, destiny is not chance—destiny is choice,” he said.

“Destiny is not something we create. That is the credo by which the women and men of STS-107 lived.”

The ceremony concluded with several moments of silence and the traditional trumpeting of “Taps.”

As they left the church, the service congregation signed cards addressed to the astronauts’ family members.

“To the family of a hero,” they read. “The Harvard community is praying for you.”

—Staff writer Nathan J. Heller can be reached at heller@fas.harvard.edu.