[Alberta's Child]

One of the things that's started to bug me over the last few days is the constant references to the need for "space exploration" and the acceptance of risks involved.

With all due respect -- those seven astronauts were not involved in much "space exploration" at all. The author makes this point very well. We stopped exploring space (from a manned perspective, that is) the moment we decided not to go beyond the moon. Maybe that's a practical reality, but let's not pretend that we are pushing any limits here -- we're just playing the odds until they catch up to us.

I agree that there needs to be a serious assessment about the future of the shuttle program. Not that we should eliminate it altogether, but that we should stop the costly, dangerous use of human crew members on missions that could be accomplished without them.

Columbus was truly an explorer, but if he dragged an extra 100 people along who had no real function on his ships just for the hell of it, we'd be calling him a moron.

[Frank_Discussion]

That's one of the most tragic things about the loss of Columbia; despite all the complaints about mere;y circling the Earth, this mission was pure science. It was exploration, not so much of space as a place, but as a tool for very special research.

And now we lost a bunch of the data, along with some great human beings.