It's remarkable that sending human beings into Earth orbit has in some strange sense become so "routine" that we have tended to let ourselves forget just how inherently perilous such an endeavor is, no matter how many precautions we take...

I still remember watching the televised first launch of the shuttle Columbia (it was the first flight of any of the shuttles) from my fourth grade classroom. Like many other ten-year-olds, I dreamed of one day making the same journey. May humankind never cease to follow the example of those who have the courage to try.

An early article this morning quoted a member of the medical staff at the planned landing site:
"When the countdown clock, when it got to zero and then started going, instead of counting down, counting up and they were still not there, I told my friend, 'I have a bad feeling. I think they are gone.' And I was in tears."