A too young space liberator dies

I just heard that Matt Bowes, who posted at the SpaceLiberates.us web log, was killed in a motorcycle accident on September 9th. He was just 19. Here is his obituary notice.

The funeral was last week but you can find his guest book here.

He had been an intern at Masten Space Systems this past summer. I knew him via the net and had exchanged emails with him occasionally. The last messages I got from him dealt with the Scaled accident. Terrible to lose a person so young and one so eager to lead the charge into space. My deepest sympathies to his family.

[Sept.28.07:
* Another Sad Day in Rocket Land - Jon Goff
* Tragic News - Rand Simberg
* A Death Far Too Young - Keith Cowing

I want to express my condolences as well to the family of Matt's passenger, Rachel Karis, who died from her injuries in the motorcycle accident: More Matt Bowes Details - Rand Simberg
]

Posted 09/27/07 | 15:15:16 by TopSpacer | Filed under: Events

Comments

RIP

Posted by anon at 09/27/07 19:17:02

He'll be missed.

I never met him, but enjoyed his passionate writings about the cause for space (especially in the private sector).

We will miss you Matt. RIP. :-(

Posted by Darnell Clayton at 09/27/07 20:02:30

I met Matt at ISDC. We spent the first night have a good arguement about politics (he was very much a libertarian, and I am very much a liberal). But it was good, and we parted on a good note, and we talked more during the event.

We'll see you in the stars, Matt.

Posted by Ferris Valyn at 09/27/07 20:02:59

I am saddened to hear of Matt’s passing.

He was a big supporter of our efforts and I certainly was happy to take care of any requests he had. His enthusiasm was more powerful than electricity when it came through the phone or E-mail.

If there were many more who shared his deep passion for the dream of spaceflight, we would be walking on Mars tomorrow.

My condolences to his family, friends and loved ones.

Chris Reed
Publicist, Bigelow Aerospace

Posted by Chris Reed at 09/28/07 12:46:58

Matt often quoted Thomas Payne when I worried about his safety whether he was skydiving, snowboarding, mountain biking or Rocketering:

"fear of death does not prevent dying but it may prevent living."

That was Matt and apparantly Rachel Karis (his new love) who was also tragically lost shared his passion for life.

Posted by Julia LaJoie, MD (Matt-s Mom) at 10/01/07 18:26:44

I realize that this site is mainly for posting condolences, but I really feel I need to comment on a post here. I am Rachel's boyfriend from San Diego. I am a graduate student in computational chemistry at UCSD. I knew her and loved her. I lived with her for a year before this horror happened, and we were going to spend our lives together. We loved each other like nothing we had ever known, and this event has brought me to the brink of total emotional and physical destruction. I'm writing this because there seems to be some misunderstanding about Rachel's relationship status with Matt. I really mean no offense, but I know that Rachel had several times told Matt that she was already in a relationship and that anything romantic with him was never going to happen. She was very persistent about it, but still tried to maintain a friendship with him. I am writing this as a form of consolation to myself because it is painful to me to hear of a nonexistent relationship between my girlfriend and someone she knew only for two weeks. I love her more than anyone I have ever known, and we would have lived long happy lives. We had so much hope for the future. I will love her forever and likely will not be able to date for many years, if ever again. I lean toward never. I am happy to have kept in close contact with her parents since this happened to try to help them know her better in the last year of her life. Hopefully we can all help each other through this.

Finally, I will say that I am very sorry for your loss and I guarantee you that I know how you feel. I sincerely hope no one is hurt by this post, but in any case I needed to write this as a small step in getting through this all if it is even possible.

Posted by Ryan D at 10/22/07 13:39:54

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