Friday, January 14, 2011

Sen. Nelson to hold reunion with shuttle crew

WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson will host a reunion Sunday at the Capitol with the NASA shuttle crew he flew with 25 years ago.

The Florida Democrat, who served as payload specialist aboard Columbia while he was serving in the House, will join the rest of the crew in a memorial service in the congressional prayer room near the Capitol Rotunda.

Nelson and NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, who commanded the flight as one of his four shuttle missions, will pray for Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., who is recovering from being shot in the head in Tucson, Ariz., on Jan. 8. Giffords is married to astronaut Mark Kelly, a veteran of three shuttle flights.

"It’s fitting that as we get together to reflect on our time in the heavens, we pray for other members of the NASA family who have been touched by tragedy, most recently Mark and Scott Kelly," said Nelson, referring to Mark Kelly’s twin brother, who is serving aboard the International Space Station.

The six-day Columbia mission that included Nelson was launched on Jan. 12, 1986. Ten days after their landing, the shuttle Challenger blew up after launching.

The Challenger crew is memorialized in a painting in a first-floor hallway of the Capitol, where the reunion crew will pause for a moment of silence before the prayer service. Columbia later broke up while returning to earth after a mission.

Other members of Nelson’s Columbia crew are:

—- Dr. Franklin Chang-Diaz, who currently heads a private company, Ad Astra Rocket Co., that is developing a plasma rocket that one day may carry humans to Mars.
—- Robert L. "Hoot" Gibson, the commander who flew five shuttle missions and participated in the investigation of the Challenger accident.
—- Steven Hawley, an astronomy professor at the University of Kansas.
—- George "Pinky" Nelson, who directs a math program at Western Washington University.
-— Robert Cenker, a retired engineer.

By BART JANSEN, Gannett Washington Bureau, bjansen@gannett.com.

IMAGE: Above, the seven crew members for STS-61C mission use the space shuttle Columbia's middeck for the traditional in-flight group portrait in January 1986. Credit: NASA. Below, the commemorative mural of the Challenger crew in the Brumidi Corridors on the first floor of the Capitol's Senate wing. Oil on canvas, Charles Schmidt, 1987, Collection of the U. S. Senate.

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