By
Videos courtesy of NASA.
Whenever he sees a veteran of the war in Afghanistan, Frank
Culberston is reminded of where he was on Sept. 11, 2001. An encounter
earlier this year is a good example. On a trip to Colonial Williamsburg,
Virginia to watch the re-enactment of British occupation, he met a
young veteran who had lost both legs while serving as an explosive
ordinance device technician in Afghanistan.
As he helped the
soldier, who had two artificial legs, navigate the unpaved grounds,
Culbertson mentioned he had witnessed the invasion of Afghanistan from
above."From where, a C-130?" the soldier asked. A C-130 is a low-flying
military aircraft used mainly to deliver troops and supplies to ground
forces.
"No, higher," Culbertson replied.
"Oh, a U-2?" the soldier guessed, referring to the high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft.
"Higher than that."
From
Aug. 12 to Dec. 15, 2001, astronaut Frank Culbertson was aboard the
International Space Station (ISS). Two hundred fifty miles above the
Earth's surface, Culbertson was the only American not on the planet at
the time of the terrorist attacks. He -- along with two Russian
cosmonauts -- witnessed the horrific events of Sept. 11, as well as the
invasion of Afghanistan a month later, from space.
View of New York from space. Photo courtesy of NASA."I could
always spot Afghanistan at night because it's basically dark," said
Culbertson, who explained that surrounding countries, with their oil
money, were pretty well lit at night. Some were even "grossly lit up,"
he said.
"One night, I looked down on Afghanistan and I saw
these big, bright explosions ... I was witnessing the invasion of
Afghanistan in pursuit of Osama bin Laden and the Taliban," he said. A
graduate of the United States Naval Academy and a former test pilot for
the Navy, Culbertson was able to identify what he saw as explosions from
cruise missiles and bombs being dropped from B-52s. "After the attacks
on 9/11, I knew the world had changed."
A month earlier, on the
morning of Sept. 11, Culbertson, who had been in space for 30 days, had
called down to mission control for a routine medical check-in.
"I asked the doctor how things were going. He responded: 'We're not having a very good day on Earth,'" Culbertson recalled.
Amid
the chaos on the ground, mission control briefed Culbertson on what
limited information they had: Two planes had crashed into the World
Trade Center towers, and one plane had crashed into the Pentagon; all
three were deliberate attacks by terrorists.
"My immediate reaction was very visceral: My country was wounded, and it was hurting," Culbertson said.
As
he listened to mission control, struggling to make sense of the tragedy
unfolding hundreds of miles below, he looked up at the map of the world
flashing on the computer screen in front of him. In a few minutes, he
would be directly over New York. He quickly left the radio, grabbed a
video camera and raced to the cabin window that would have the best view
of the city.
"It was a very good weather day, and I could look
down and see the entire northeastern U.S. very clearly. I saw a big
column of black smoke rising over New York City, over Long Island, and
out over the Atlantic. I zoomed the camera in, and as I did, I saw this
big gray glob start to envelop the southern half of the city." He found
out two days later that he was witnessing the collapse of the South
Tower.
Because the International Space Station travels at a speed
of about 5 miles per second (it completes its orbit of Earth in only 90
minutes), the views of New York came and went very quickly. Due to the planet's rotation, the next time Culbertson and his crewmates
passed over the U.S., they had a view of the Midwest and the Southwest,
which was important to Culbertson. A married father of five, he wanted
to make sure his family was out of harm's way.
"I had a daughter
studying at Purdue University at the time, so as we crossed over the
Midwest, I'm looking throughout that area to make sure everything's all
right over there. Most of the family was in Houston, and I could see all
the way down to Texas," he said.
As the ISS crossed the Midwest
and the mid-Atlantic region came into view, Culbertson and his crewmates
were ready with cameras and binoculars.
"We flew directly over
Washington, D.C., and I could look straight down and see the Pentagon
with basically a gash in its side, and the smoke and the lights of the
rescue vehicles," he said. "We could tell it was a terrible event."
The
tragedy at the Pentagon soon became much more personal for Culbertson.
The next morning, he found out that a former Naval Academy classmate and
good friend, Charles Burlingame, was the captain of American Airlines
Flight 77, which had crashed into the building the day before.
"Tears
don't flow the same in space," said Culbertson in a letter he wrote to
the public on Sept. 12. "It's difficult to describe how it feels to be
the only American completely off the planet at a time such as this. The
feeling that I should be there with all of you, dealing with this,
helping in some way, is overwhelming."
Culbertson's and
Burlingame's 30th college reunion was scheduled to take place at the end
of September, and originally Culbertson had planned to send a video
message down to his class with joyful greetings and news of his
adventures in space. Instead, he played taps on his trumpet in honor of
Burlingame, a man who had, decades earlier, played trumpet alongside him
in the Navy's Drum and Bugle Corps.
Though sorrow tinged his
remaining days in space, Culbertson remembers the care poured over him
by people from various countries. On a close level, he felt the love and
encouragement of his two Russian counterparts, who not only shared
their sympathy -- as well as their outrage toward the attackers -- and
made Culbertson's favorite dinner (borscht), but also gave him the time
he needed to think and to grieve. On a wider scale, Culbertson felt the
support of nations around the world.
Frank Culbertson playing trumpet on September 16, 2001. Photo courtesy of NASA."Over the next few weeks, I
spoke to many different people from different countries: Russian mission
control, prime ministers, royalty," he said. "They all started their
conversations [by] extending their condolences to me and to the rest of
the country. There were a lot of sympathetic connections going around
the world through the International Space Station, which I thought was a
very interesting phenomenon."
Now that the U.S. has ended its
space shuttle program, 62-year-old Culbertson, who retired from NASA in
2002, has joined the private sector in hopes of continuing the legacy of
manned space flight. He currently serves as senior vice president of
Orbital Sciences, where he is responsible for the company's human space
flight programs. After witnessing the goodwill and the cooperation that
took place on a multinational level during his time on the ISS,
Culbertson believes that manned space flight projects are important for
international diplomacy because they allow nations to work together
toward a greater goal.
"It's important to continue to use the
space program as an example of what can be accomplished on a
multinational basis. ... Even though we're 10 years away from 9/11, we
haven't resolved the issues; the threat is still very real. We still
have to take off our shoes going through airport security. We still have
young men and women fighting to maintain our freedom here in this
country," he said.
Culbertson enjoys talking to young military
veterans about Sept. 11, learning about their experiences and discussing
the unique vantage point he had from space. Meeting the soldier in
Colonial Williamsburg earlier this year was no different. But Culbertson
said he was particularly impressed by the young man's maturity and
perspective.
"He had a very positive outlook for someone who had
trouble walking. He told me, 'We've got to work on an international
basis to solve all these problems and ring in some peaceful
resolutions.' ... I couldn't have agreed more."
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