illusionofjoy | The Ephemeral Machines of Man

Seven astronauts died as the space shuttle Columbia broke apart over Texas early today. It would be my speculation that those who claimed that "NASA had made space travel boring" should be swallowing their words at this point. If nothing else, this is a sobering reminder that we are still at the point where space travel is never boring and we have a long way to go before it can even be considered as such.

It's of small comfort that Bush has not tried to pin this on the Iraqis or what remains of the Taliban. I also find it interesting - if slightly unnerving - that all of NASA's disasters have historically occurred during this time period. The Challenger exploded on January 28, 1986 and the Apollo fire happened January 27, 1967.

Still, I opine that reaching for the stars remains a far better option than turning other nations to rubble.