This morning, I woke up before the sun had arisen. It was about 5:40. The alarm had not gone off, but I had wanted to wake up this early because I knew that the space shuttle Columbia would be re-entering Earth’s atmosphere just over northern California at about 5:50, and it would be visible as a shooting star over my house at about 5:52 a.m.

I looked out the window, and the fog in our area was far too dense to see anything. I went back to bed, saddened that I couldn’t see the shuttle as it re-entered, but knowing there will be other opportunities.

I woke up again at 7:45 and stumbled blearily into the computer room to check my e-mail. The two CNN Breaking News alerts in my Inbox were the first indication I had about the news from Columbia: that NASA had lost contact with the shuttle over Texas; and, later, that the Space Shuttle had broken up over Texas.

There is virtually no possibility that this was a terrorist incident of any kind. One spokesman for the Bush administration has already said that they couldn’t think of a more difficult to hit target than the Space Shuttle. One of the seven astronauts on board was Ilan Ramon, the first Israeli astronaut in space, and his presence has undoubtedly made the threat of terrorism look more likely to many. It’s more likely, however, that there was some damage to the heat resistant tiles on the left wing of the shuttle, and that is was caused the problems which led to the shuttle’s breakup.

I’ve been scanning the news sites, including Space.com, and there’s no indication that the crew had communicated any problems to ground control. It sounds like whatever happened was quick. We should be glad for that, at least; the seven aboard probably suffered very little.

It’s far too easy to point fingers and throw around blame and ponder what policies might change or how this might affect our nation and our space program. Today, though, we should send our thoughts to the families of the seven crew members aboard the space shuttle. Today my flag is flying at half mast. The seven men and women of the crew of Space Shuttle Mission STS-107 gave their lives in service to their nations and in the name of exploration and discovery.

May they rest forever among the stars they sought.