Sue
1985-2008 - 268,432 miles
"I prefer people to machinery but there are times when cold, inanimate objects deserve the affection, regard and esteem usually reserved for flesh and blood. July 24 was such a time, and Columbia was such a machine.
She had taken us across a hostile, black void to an alien world then back again, depositing us almost affectionately on the bluest of blue waters. It didn't seem just to leave her scorched carcass unceremoniously, gutted and unattended, without somehow trying to mark her, to set her apart. That night I clambered back on board and, ballpoint pen in hand, stood at the navigation station, staring at the blank expanse of grey bulkhead.
I couldn't think of words eloquent enough to describe my emotions but finally I wrote "Spacecraft 107, alias Apollo 11, alias Columbia. The best ship to come down the line. God bless her."
-Michael Collins