General

We shall never cease from exploration And the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we… [WIL WHEATON DOT NET: Where is my mind?]

What the Shuttles have given us. I wasn’t surprised that some webloggers are using the sad loss today of the Shuttle Columbia as yet another excuse to bicker and squabble, or to point to vague hints of terrorism. Too many in weblogging, and elsewhere, have gained their prominance due in equal parts to antagonism, distrust, and terrorism — it’s to their advantage to hint of dark deeds in any event. I was disappointed, though, to read the following from Dan Gillmor’s eJournal: Obviously we need to find out what went wrong, if we can, before sending the shuttles back up. But I fear this accident (assuming that’s what it is, as is almost surely the case) will instead be a justification for paralysis — a halt to U.S. space exploration when the proper response is to redouble humanity’s push into the frontier. It has never been more critical, given the terrestrial threats, to get the species off the planet and to find new resources for those who remain. The space station and shuttle program were under fire for other, good reasons. They do little for true exploration of space. A reexamination of the entire space program — and maybe turning it into a truly global affair… [Burningbird]

NY Times: “It is not too much to say that along with an Israeli flag, Col Ilan Ramon carried Israel’s dreams with him into space.” [Scripting News]

Husband

McCool

Anderson

Brown

Chawla

Clark

Ramon

[Marc’s Voice]

Bush: “No Survivors” From Shuttle Loss. WASHINGTON (AP) — President Bush sadly informed the nation Saturday of the worst space tragedy in 17 years, saying “The Columbia’s lost. There are no survivors.”. By The Associated Press. [New York Times: NYT HomePage]

Cause of Fiery Fall Is Unknown; Ship Was Fleet’s Oldest [New York Times: National]

America Mourns, Again. At a time when there seemed to be more than enough bad news to go around, we woke up on Saturday morning to TV bulletins about a missing space shuttle, and then pictures of an exploding, burning spacecraft streaking across the sky. [New York Times: Opinion]