Carol offers this sentiment for the Columbia Seven.

Jim Pinkerton offers a powerful arguement for spreading human civilization to space. It is vital for both human freedom and human survival.

For the first time, I think, ever, there is a push from the Congress to increase NASA's budget.

Reader Michael Montagne comments on the environmentally correct shuttle external tank insulation controversy:

I was listening to the Rush Limbaugh show today, Rodger Hegecock was sitting in for Rush. He read from a NASA report prepared after an earlier flight in which insulation debris from the external tank caused significant tile damage. The report stated that they began having much more foam debris, and much more attendant tile damage, after the method of foaming the external tank was changed. The method was changed because the new method is considered more environmentally friendly. No details were given on how or why it is more friendly. Good God! If it should turn out that this could have been avoided but for somebody kowtowing to some idiotic environmental concern I will be sick.

Of course if true it would not be the first time environmentalism has caused needless deaths. For example, environmentalists will go nuts over supposed dangers attributed to nuclear power. But they are silent about the very real deaths suffered by coal miners since we burn coal instead of uranium.

Sadly, but inevitably, the enemies of space exploration are coming out from under the rocks. Typical was the statement by the High Priest of Humans in Space Delanda est Robert Park:

"The plain fact is, shuttle and space-station science can't be justified in terms of the science," said Robert Park, a physics professor at the University of Maryland and the spokesman for the American Physical Society. "No research has been conducted that has significantly benefited any field of science."

No research? That's a particularly bold statement and one I suspect could be easily refuted. Park seems willfully ignorent about how science is conducted in the real world. Very few laboratories on Earth, for example, are staffed entirely by robots. It can be argued that there is a cost/benefit problem with conducting science research on 400 million dollar shuttle launches or on a thirty odd billion dollar space station. But Park will not go there because he knows that the same arguement might be made about five hundred million dollar probes to Mars.

Park and his ilk also have a problem with believing that all space exploration is about is "good science." It is not. Properly speaking, space exploration is about expanding human presence and human opportunities beyond the Earth. "Good science" is only a small part of that.

But the real reason for Park's religious-seeming opposition to human space flight is a cynical and not very realistic view of budget politics. The theory is that if we were to end human space flight tomorrow, money would be freed up to launch more robotic probes. That won't happen because there are a myriad of demands on federal dollars and plenty of politicians willing to lay their hands on that money should it become available. Robotic space exploration certainly did not benefit in the 1970s when we truncated Apollo and deferred dreams of lunar settlements and missions to Mars. But, alas, some people never learn and prefer to adhere to their biases rather than real world experience.

Did you hear about the German peacenik who decided to make his point clear to an American with a Swiss Army knife?

Since everyone else is offering suggestions of what to do about the space program, I offer this, first published and syndicated by the LA Times last July.

According to Done Deal, the next film by Randall Wallace (Braveheart, We Were Soldiers) will be something called Love and Honor.

Set in 18th century Russia and framed around the Revolutionary War, an American is sent to seek out Catherine the Great to prevent her from joining the British to put down the American Revolution. In the process of convincing her to side with him, he falls in love with her.

Glenn Reynolds tries to provide some answers to some of the questions Rand asks.

Rand Simberg would like to ask some questions about the future of space travel.

Chantal offers the following as a sentiment for the Columbia Seven.

The 2004 NASA budget will be rolled out without a lot of fanfare. There's money for Prometheus, the Orbital Space Plane, and other inititiatives. I suspect that as a result of Columbia, a lot more money will be added in later in the year.

Besides the Iraqis (who by the way know not the meaning of the phrase "God's vengence", though they soon will) it looks like Bruce Garnon of the Global Network against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space is dancing on the smouldering graves of the Columbia Seven. Scum.

The following is from Steven Pipar. Thanks to Chantal for directing me to it:

Seven Are Gone

Sunna has risen, bright in the East
Washing starlight, out of the sky
Wispy skysheep, in their blue lea
Calmly, gently, day has begun

Within the black, high above Earth
A small spark glows, grows in our sight
Out from the dark, lying in West
Skyfaring wain, Starheim Seeker

Columbia, bearing seven
Brave hearts all, and good minded
Men and Women, Worthy in Deed
Road flame pillar, seeking to Do

At the Skyhall, duty they did
Working to build, working to Learn
Living a Dream, Far Travelers
Beyond the bounds, of earthly home

Fortnight, twinnight, both together
Was the length of, venture journey
Sixteen full days, beyond the Winds
Sixteen full days, beyond Sun's Warmth

Came the morning, tools put away
All were seated, ready to fare
Winging to home, hearth and kinfolk
Looking forward, gladly longing

Ship's underbelly, tickled the clouds
Something went wrong, badly amiss
Skywain glowed hot, much too brightly
The great white ship, became embers

Shattered, falling, torn asunder
Columbia, and the brave seven
Into our hearts, tragically thrust
Such a great loss, for Kin and Kith

No more to hear, words from their lips
No more to feel, loving embrace
No more to see, them anymore
No more, no more, but Memory

In this regard, all will recall
Darkness of day, brightness of death
Better still is, bringing to mind
Names they did build, Fame they did have

Sunna has risen, bright in the East
Washing starlight, out of the sky
Wispy skysheep, in their blue lea
Calmly, gently, day has begun.

Peggy Noonan offers a wonderful sentiment.

Never let it be said that the President lacks elloquence when it is sorely needed:

My fellow Americans, this day has brought terrible news and great sadness to our country. At 9:00 a.m. this morning, Mission Control in Houston lost contact with our Space Shuttle Columbia. A short time later, debris was seen falling from the skies above Texas. The Columbia is lost; there are no survivors.

On board was a crew of seven: Colonel Rick Husband; Lt. Colonel Michael Anderson; Commander Laurel Clark; Captain David Brown; Commander William McCool; Dr. Kalpana Chawla; and Ilan Ramon, a Colonel in the Israeli Air Force. These men and women assumed great risk in the service to all humanity.

In an age when space flight has come to seem almost routine, it is easy to overlook the dangers of travel by rocket, and the difficulties of navigating the fierce outer atmosphere of the Earth. These astronauts knew the dangers, and they faced them willingly, knowing they had a high and noble purpose in life. Because of their courage and daring and idealism, we will miss them all the more.

All Americans today are thinking, as well, of the families of these men and women who have been given this sudden shock and grief. You're not alone. Our entire nation grieves with you. And those you loved will always have the respect and gratitude of this country.

The cause in which they died will continue. Mankind is led into the darkness beyond our world by the inspiration of discovery and the longing to understand. Our journey into space will go on.

In the skies today we saw destruction and tragedy. Yet farther than we can see there is comfort and hope. In the words of the prophet Isaiah, "Lift your eyes and look to the heavens. Who created all these? He who brings out the starry hosts one by one and calls them each by name. Because of His great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing."

The same Creator who names the stars also knows the names of the seven souls we mourn today. The crew of the shuttle Columbia did not return safely to Earth; yet we can pray that all are safely home.

May God bless the grieving families, and may God continue to bless America.

The funeral pyre of the crew of Columbia 107 streaked across the Texas sky like some horrible comet. In ancient times comets were considered to be a prelude to Earth shaking events, the fall of empires, or the death of kings. What turns of history this tragedy will begin I’m not sure anyone could predict. I can offer, though, some suggestions of what should be.

First I should hope that there will be no months and years long orgy of self doubt and recrimination. The inevitable voices which will use this tragedy as an excuse to end human space flight should not be heeded. Find the problem, fix it, and then push on.

However the loss of Columbia and her crew does illustrate with great urgency a great problem in the area of access to space. The United States has only one vehicle, the space shuttle, as a means for carrying people to and from space. This situation should not be allowed to continue. The nation should figure out how to expand our means of space travel in the most expeditious way possible. While I suspect one option along those lines will be to accelerate the development of the Orbital Space Plane, I hope that commercial solutions will be pursued as well. Let the genius of the private sector finally be brought to bear, to develop new and creative means of space travel.

Finally there have been stories in the media about the intentions of the Bush Administration to find great things for NASA to do, beyond just being a glorified space trucking company. Project Prometheus, which is said to be to build space nuclear power and propulsion systems, should not be deferred. Prometheus should proceed with all due speed and diligence. While Robert Heinlein was right when he said when you get to low Earth orbit, you’re half way to anywhere, nuclear power and propulsion is the key to get us the rest of the way.

Let this be the memorial for the crew of Columbia 107, as well as those of Challenger 51L and Apollo 1: a renewed purpose to open up the high frontier of space not just for the few, but for all people.

Oh my God, not again!

Update: It looks like the space shuttle Columbia is lost with her entire crew. Terrorism so far has been ruled out. Much more when news becomes available.

Speaking of space races, 45 years ago yesterday the original space race was joined with the launch of Explorer 1.

The X Prize Foundation has a prize for the first team to fly a piloted space craft in a suborbital flight. Now we have the Mars Prize with a slightly more ambitious target.