HOUSTON (BP)--As the video of the disintegrating Space Shuttle Columbia was shown, yet again, on the local TV station in Houston, the caption at the bottom of the television screen read that yet another area church was going to be open Saturday evening for prayer and memorial services.
Throughout the communities surrounding NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston people were aching and searching for answers to what seemed like inexplicable questions. Churches, synagogues and Hindu temples opened their doors in an effort to provide solace. But there are those who know peace can only be found in the Prince of Peace.
Those most intimately involved in the space shuttle program know there may never be a definitive answer to why the orbiter broke apart Feb. 1 upon reentry into the earth's atmosphere. But those who know shuttles and the Lord know the ultimate answer to all the questions of "why?" can only be found in the sovereignty of the one true God.
"We are dealing with a God who is in control," said Mike Red, who has worked for the NASA engineering directorate at JSC since 1986. "God takes tragedy and turns it to triumph. I believe that."
Recognizing the sovereignty of God keeps things in perspective for David Leestma.
"This is a risky business," Leestma said regarding the space flight program. Having served as mission specialist on three shuttle flights, he is well-acquainted with the potential risk every astronaut takes when he suits up for a mission. "Christians know," he said, "that life here is a vapor."
Leestma played an integral part in the lives of the Columbia crew. "I knew them all," he said. As director of space flight operations from 1992-2000, Leestma oversaw the selection of candidates into the astronaut corps, including those who lost their lives aboard the Columbia.
The former astronaut watched the tense moments Saturday morning unfold from a Houston hospital bed where he lay recovering from surgery the day before. That night or Sunday morning he would be going home. He concluded, based on the early video footage on the television, the Columbia crew would not.
So Leestma prayed for their families. He knew Columbia commander Rick Husband and mission specialist Michael Anderson to be committed Christians and that their families will ultimately find peace in their faith in Christ.
But those who do not know Jesus as Savior, Leestma said, tend to respond to these tragedies with a sense of outrage because they have no hope. But Christians, he added, can use this tragedy as an opportunity to minister to those who are grieving.
Nassau Bay City Manager John Kennedy agreed, adding that the lives of Husband and Anderson can be used as a means to begin the process of sharing one's own faith, a mission that will be greatly needed in Nassau Bay, literally a "bedroom community" to NASA. It is home to nine astronauts and countless shuttle and space station personnel. The town's city hall sits directly across the road from the main NASA entrance.
