It's pretty clear that nothing untoward precipitated the disintegration of the Columbia spaceshuttle upon it's re-entry. No terrorism is needed when our own scientists make calculated risks that others are forced to take.

The first rumors that the damaged left wing of the shuttle might have been the root cause of the breakup came almost immediately after the story broke. Of course the launch on the 16th barely made headlines and therefore the mishap during the launch didn't even register.

In my mind, I felt pretty certain WELL before the speculation of what might have happened began to trickle out, that NASA's own slowly declining importance in American mainstream culture had everything to do with the tragedy.

NASA scientists have been complaining for years about funding and the dwindling importance our government places on this agency. Have we gone as far as we can go with the space program? Is there nothing new to discover? Have our collective brains turned to low-brow mush, while we turn our backs on the higher pursuit of knowledge and scientific discovery?

In 1986, the launching of the Challenger was an enormous deal, at least to school age children. A real life person was going into outerspace, a teacher. I was fascinated by space and the solar system. I took astronomy as an elective and was drawn to sci-fi literature. I even scored in the 98% for science on the ACT (which is quite noteworthy, considering how poorly I did in math -you DON'T want to know). I was, and still am, a space buff.

When the Challenger exploded, I was in English class watching with my fellow students. It was horrifying. Unnatural. Grimly surreal - as though some strange twists of fate had aligned to watch us all collectively gasp and cry out. My teacher began to cry, I cried. Hell, we all cried. We just couldn't believe it.