10 yrs since the space shuttle Columbia tragedy

I can remember hoping that somehow they could have survived.

http://www.space.com/12516-photos-colum ... aster.html

On February 1, 2003, during re-entry, the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated over northern Texas with all seven crewmembers aboard. This picture survived on a roll of unprocessed film recovered by searchers from the debris.

And NASA was pretty sure the crew were dead men walking before they entered the atmosphere...and the insulating foam that damaged the heat tiles protecting our astronauts was changed to be more enviromentally friendly.

I am guessing they couldn't get another shuttle or Russian rocket up there in time, or had them go the the International Space Station to wait for rescue.

Can you imagine if they had told the astronauts and the world that they couldn't survive re-entry, how it would be taken?

When one takes even a brief moment to realize the volitility of rocket fuel and that each and every time a rocket is launched it is little more than a controlled explosion, one can only be amazed that there has been so little loss of life in the pursuit of space exploration over the course of the last 60 years.

The Space Shuttle Program put over 800 people into orbit, accumulated neraly 200,000 man hours of time in orbit and over 1300 days that an orbiter was actually in orbit over the course of the 135 missions that were flown. Over the course of 30 years that the orbiters were flying there were two catastrophic accidents resulting in the loss of 14 lives.

We spent less on the entire Space Shuttle program over the course of 30 years than we will spend paying interest on our national debt for the current fiscal year. Think about that for a moment or two before you start talking about "senseless waste".

For a change I agree with PrintSmith......the space program has been a continuing wonder to me......starting with the promise from JFK.....through the many flights....and to this day, I have watched, marveled, and been totally engrossed by the program. That we did it, that we did it well, and that it was much safer than I ever thought possible. The tragedies were awful, for the program, for the nation and especially for the astronaut's families....but I believe that they all knew what the risks were, and even if they had been told of the problem they would have handled themselves with professionalism and dignity......I don't think you can put a price on what the space program did for this country, for science, and really for the consumer world.......It was money well spent, but that is the least of it...If you really think about how intricate and involved every phase of a manned space flight is, from concept to design to execution.....how ever did we accomplish so much against such odds? We have advanced our knowledge of space and this planet we call home .....awesome.

Originally each Space Shuttle were supposed to be retired after 4 trips IIRC, and they broke that rule early on. I eagerly await to see what will replace it.