Astronaut's Husband: NASA Not to Blame
Posted on: Thursday, 20 March 2003, 06:00 CST
By RAMOLA TALWAR BADAM
CHANDIGARH, India (AP) -- The families of the seven astronauts killed in the Columbia explosion in February do not blame NASA, the husband of Indian-born astronaut Kalpana Chawla said Thursday.
"It was a risk we knew about. It's the same for families of military pilots," Jean-Pierre Harrison told some 40 aeronautics students at Punjab Engineering College, where his wife had studied 25 years ago. "In any human endeavor there are going to be errors."
The seven astronauts and their families had planned to visit India together in March. On Thursday, Harrison came alone to this northern Indian town.
He said the families kept in regular touch but "emotionally had still to come to terms" with the deaths.
On Feb. 1, the space shuttle broke up over Texas while entering the Earth's atmosphere, 16 minutes before it was to touch down.
Media reports after the crash speculated whether NASA could have prevented the tragedy.
The accident investigation board later said it suspected a break in the left wing had let in scorching air and caused the destruction of Columbia and the deaths of all seven astronauts.
Investigators are still trying to figure out what caused the breach.
"We don't blame NASA or any person in NASA. They did the best job they knew given the information they had," Harrison said.
Chawla, 41, left for the United States in the 1980s and became an astronaut in 1994.
The first female astronaut from India, she met Harrison in 1982 while studying in the University of Texas at Arlington and they married a year later.
Harrison, who also is a pilot, said they often talked about the risks of space flight.
"We did talk about it. She said if it happened, it happened," he said. "It was not a bad way to go because it was in space. I accepted it as something she wanted to do."
Chawla is a national hero in India and young girls have said she inspired them by the example of excellence she set in science and technology.
"What attracted me to her was her inner fire to do well. She was determined to utilize it for something. She was a very private person," said Harrison, who was born in England to a French mother and an English father. He went to the United States in 1974.
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