[El Gato]

3:00 p.m. in which time zone? The crash was in Central.

Central would also seem appropriate because Mission Control in Houston also runs on Central time. However, does anyone know if the shuttle itself ran on Central or Zulu?(aka Greenich Mean Time, aka Universal Time)

[Desdemona]

However, does anyone know if the shuttle itself ran on Central or Zulu?

Houston time. Everything is based on Mission Control. Usually, for takeoff they used Cape time. But I don't know which time zone they're talking about for the prayer service.

This is awful. And it's not just the astronauts. Those families go through so much, from the days of flight school and testpilot school (in the old days) on. It never ends.