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CNN Live At Daybreak
Columbia Shuttle Tragedy: The Mourning
Aired February 03, 2003 - 06:10 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Mourners leaving flowers and teddy bears are turning out at the space centers in Houston and Florida, as we mentioned before. It's all to pay their respects to the shuttle astronauts.
CNN's Daryn Kagan joins us now from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Good morning -- Daryn.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Carol.
You know we've -- we have heard and seen a lot about what took place on Saturday. A lot of that focused on Houston and what was happening there as officials were waiting for the space shuttle to come back. Of course this right here at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, this is where the shuttle was due to come back and there were a lot of people waiting, a lot of media here. This was supposed to be, after all, a happy celebration and a pretty simple story of the return of yet another space shuttle flight.
We haven't seen, up until now, what took place here and now we have the opportunity. We've gotten our hands on some video from a station in Jacksonville. They were here to cover it.
This was shot by a crew from WJXT. This is as they were getting ready. There you could see the clock, the countdown, and the sense of waiting and wondering when the clock counted down and the shuttle didn't come back and that sense of doom that something had gone wrong.
At that point, as we understand it, the media who were sitting here waiting -- you'll see it's about to get down to zero -- were herded into the news center area at Kennedy Space Center. Let's listen in to what they said as they walked into the building.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: God rest their souls.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're walking back into the press facility right now. Everyone's been called back in. Looks like the shuttle has blown up over northern Texas.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAGAN: So definitely a sense that things did not go as they were intended to on Saturday.
As quiet and kind of eerily peaceful as things are here, they tell me that they have contingency plans, and I think we've seen that with NASA. They practice and they are ready for when things go right or go wrong. They have their plans of how things are supposed to go. And you saw right there that in case the shuttle not coming back as planned, the media herded into one center so they can get as much information as possible.
What we are looking for here today from Kennedy Space Center, even though much of the story has moved on to Texas and to Barksdale, the head of the Kennedy Space Center, Roy Bridges, will be speaking to the employees of Kennedy Space Center. Hasn't had a chance really to do that, to address them as a group, and that's going to happen at 11:00 a.m. Eastern today.
Carol, back to you.
COSTELLO: I'm sure they need to hear from him, too.
KAGAN: Yes.
COSTELLO: Daryn Kagan, thanks so much.
KAGAN: Thanks.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired February 3, 2003 - 06:10 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Mourners leaving flowers and teddy bears are turning out at the space centers in Houston and Florida, as we mentioned before. It's all to pay their respects to the shuttle astronauts.
CNN's Daryn Kagan joins us now from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Good morning -- Daryn.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Carol.
You know we've -- we have heard and seen a lot about what took place on Saturday. A lot of that focused on Houston and what was happening there as officials were waiting for the space shuttle to come back. Of course this right here at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, this is where the shuttle was due to come back and there were a lot of people waiting, a lot of media here. This was supposed to be, after all, a happy celebration and a pretty simple story of the return of yet another space shuttle flight.
We haven't seen, up until now, what took place here and now we have the opportunity. We've gotten our hands on some video from a station in Jacksonville. They were here to cover it.
This was shot by a crew from WJXT. This is as they were getting ready. There you could see the clock, the countdown, and the sense of waiting and wondering when the clock counted down and the shuttle didn't come back and that sense of doom that something had gone wrong.
At that point, as we understand it, the media who were sitting here waiting -- you'll see it's about to get down to zero -- were herded into the news center area at Kennedy Space Center. Let's listen in to what they said as they walked into the building.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: God rest their souls.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're walking back into the press facility right now. Everyone's been called back in. Looks like the shuttle has blown up over northern Texas.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAGAN: So definitely a sense that things did not go as they were intended to on Saturday.
As quiet and kind of eerily peaceful as things are here, they tell me that they have contingency plans, and I think we've seen that with NASA. They practice and they are ready for when things go right or go wrong. They have their plans of how things are supposed to go. And you saw right there that in case the shuttle not coming back as planned, the media herded into one center so they can get as much information as possible.
What we are looking for here today from Kennedy Space Center, even though much of the story has moved on to Texas and to Barksdale, the head of the Kennedy Space Center, Roy Bridges, will be speaking to the employees of Kennedy Space Center. Hasn't had a chance really to do that, to address them as a group, and that's going to happen at 11:00 a.m. Eastern today.
Carol, back to you.
COSTELLO: I'm sure they need to hear from him, too.
KAGAN: Yes.
COSTELLO: Daryn Kagan, thanks so much.
KAGAN: Thanks.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
