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Family, friends recall astronauts
HOUSTON, Texas (CNN) -- Family and friends of the astronauts who died Saturday when their speeding spacecraft disintegrated during re-entry recalled them with admiration and pride. Sunday, David Jones was still describing his friend, shuttle commander Rick Husband, 45, in the present tense. "Rick is a strong Christian man, and his family shares that faith," Jones said. Jones said he watched the shuttle streak overhead from his vantage point in Lubbock, Texas, and didn't sense anything was amiss from what he saw. Jones said he then went inside to watch the touchdown on television. Patty Ragan, Husband's friend, said he lived life to the fullest. "He put himself into everything he did with a full heart and whatever was necessary to achieve his goals, he was willing to do that," she said. She described him as a natural leader from his days as a student at Amarillo High School. "He was a leader at high school, through school, college, and of course, since college." The mother of 41-year-old William McCool, the shuttle pilot, was passionate as she spoke about him Sunday in San Diego, California. "He did not die in vain," Audrey McCool said. "This will go on -- [the] space program go on." Willie, as she called him, was married, deeply religious and loved teaching children about science -- the focus of the seven astronauts' 16-day mission, she said. "They felt it would have benefits for humanity. It would be a travesty if they didn't continue, because it helps not just us but all of humanity." In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Daniel Salton, the brother of astronaut Laurel Blair Salton Clark, was watching Columbia's re-entry on television when mission control lost communication with the spacecraft. He said Clark, a 41-year-old Navy surgeon who was married with one child, also described the pride of being an astronaut. "How blessed she felt to be serving her country and getting to do the medical experiments, working with scientists around the world and how thrilling it was," Salton said. David Brown's mother said David's older brother asked him, just before he left, what would happen if something went wrong. "Dave just said, 'This program will go on -- it has to go on,'" Dorothy Brown said. Michael Anderson was one of the few space veterans aboard the shuttle. A U.S. Air Force lieutenant, he called Spokane, Washington, home, and going into space a dream come true. "That's what he's dreamed of doing most of his life," said his sister, Joanne. "That's what he set his goals to do. That's what he sacrificed to do, and that is what he did." Mourning in India, IsraelIn Israel, flags were at half-staff in memory of astronaut Ilan Ramon. Students stood for a moment of silence. The son of Holocaust survivors, Ramon was Israel's first astronaut and a decorated Israeli Air Force pilot. Avi Har-even, director of Israel's space agency, said Ramon was a role model. "Across the country he was viewed as a local and international hero," Har-even said. "From the view of the young generation he was looked [upon] as someone to become. He was very modest, a good friend, loved very much by his family." His brother, Gadi Ramon, described Ilan's final e-mail. "We were so happy for him. It was the top of his life and that's what's happened," Ramon said. "He was so happy. He said that he was so happy that he doesn't want to come back to Earth. And he didn't come back to Earth." Friends and family of astronaut Kalpana Chawla, 41, remembered her for her big aspirations -- even when she was a little girl growing up in a small town in India. "She liked to do those things which are, of course, a little unconventional, like for example taking aeronautical engineering in the 1970s was a little unconventional for a girl from a small place," said her grade school classmate Manju Gupta. "But that is how she was." Crew touched 'the face of God,' pastor saysThe shuttle crew was eulogized at a number of religious services Sunday. In Titusville, Florida, where many Kennedy Space Center workers live, the Rev. David Waller of the First United Methodist Church called the trail of smoke from the disintegrating shuttle a "glistening tear across the face of the heavens." The Rev. Mike Weaver of All Saints Evangelical Lutheran Church in Columbus, Ohio, said the crew had touched "the face of God." At St. Bartholomew's Church in New York City, the names of crew members were recited during the customary prayers for departed loved ones President Bush and first lady Laura Bush will travel to Texas on Tuesday to attend a NASA memorial service at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, senior administration officials said. Copyright 2003 CNN. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.
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