The space shuttle Columbia appears to have broken up on re-entry, and all crew members are believed dead including astronauts from Israel and India. I don’t know what to say, this is a great loss for all mankind.

Misha has a very touching post about the tragedy.

Laurence Simon has a nice post, and he’s already planning to do something about it for this year’s Blogathon. Bravo!

Predictably, the CBC has already blamed “US arrogance”, and extreme liberals already are claiming Bush and Rove engineered it to boost his approval rating. Some are now celebrating Allah’s killing of the Zionist astronaut. Does this validate E. Nough’s parody?

Den Beste has ‘no snappy analysis’. But he does have pictures of the crew members.

And here’s LGF’s thread (and a second one, and now a third).

As you might expect, Rand Simberg is all over this.

Acidman is angry over the stalling of manned spaceflight since the first Shuttle launch. NASA needs to be stripped down and rebuilt, perhaps this will set that in motion.

Everyone else is running the “surly bonds of Earth” poem from the Challenger disaster. Since this is Columbia I’m going to do something different. Here are the lyrics to a song about her first launch in 1981.

Countdown

Lyrics by Neil Peart
From the Rush album Signals

Lit up with anticipation
We arrive at the launching site
The sky is still dark, nearing dawn
On the Florida coastline

Circling choppers slash the night
With roving searchlight beams
This magic day when super-science
Mingles with the bright stuff of dreams

Floodlit in the hazy distance
The star of this unearthly show
Venting vapours, like the breath
Of a sleeping white dragon

Crackling speakers, voices tense
Resume the final count
All systems check, T minus nine
As the sun and the drama start to mount

The air is charged — a humid, motionless mass
The crowds and the cameras,
The cars full of spectators pass
Excitement so thick — you could cut it with a knife
Technology — high, on the leading edge of life

The earth beneath us starts to tremble
With the spreading of a low black cloud
A thunderous roar shakes the air
Like the whole world exploding

Scorching blast of golden fire
As it slowly leaves the ground
Tears away with a mighty force
The air is shattered by the awesome sound

Like a pillar of cloud, the smoke lingers
High in the air
In fascination — with the eyes of the world
We stare…