This is not what anyone wants to wake up to.

My first memory of any news event in my lifetime was Challenger. I remember seeing that fireball on tv, over and over again. And as I watch the video of Columbia breaking apart, part of me becomes that scared, sad kid again.

Speaking of showing footage of the burning vessel breaking into peaces 200,000 miles up repeatedly, a couple of the major network anchors who were around for Challenger, notably Rather and Jennings, said that they would not excessively saturate the tv screen with a repeating loop of Columbia breaking up, and I salute them for that. But of course, Fox News has it on a loop. I'm not surprised.

The crew is undoubtedly lost. Six Americans, and one Israeli. That has to be really tough on the Israeli people. Putting all political opinions aside (and yes, I have many), it was a rare piece of good news for the Israelis to know that one of their own would make it into space, and even that ends in tragedy.

For more coverage, the New York Times has a whole section up.

I'm sure there are many other things to be said about this, but I don't feel they are very appropriate at this time. I'll probably say them later.

May the crew rest in peace. If praying is your thing, then please do.