Hi, Ruth!

First time I've seen one of your posts, here. Welcome!
You've offered some good points.
Americans, and all citizens of this planet need a viable vision of the future, and space-travel fits in
that picture.
Let me add, while I hate the thought
of "bean-counting" at a time like this
[what price tag can you put on a human life?] there is nonetheless a... financial...opportunity presenting itself to NASA in this tragedy.

<>b>[I hope you fellow zoners don't think I'm being insensitive to the loss of human lives by bringing up the subject of the NASA budget at a time like this. I'm not!]

I'll explain!...OPTIMISTICALLY, the
shuttle's will be back in service in
months...REALISTICALLY, you'll probably
have to wait another 3-years for the
next shuttle launch...
That means as far as NASA's shuttle-launching budget of about one-billion dollars this year, should that one-billion dollars be returned to the US taxpayer, or
should it be reinvested into?...[some suggested choices]
[1]fund a replacement shuttle?...
[2]revive the Europa orbiter project?...
[3]revive the X-38 ISS escape vehicle project?...
[4]fund and build liquid-fueled strap-on boosters for the shuttle fleet?
[5] VASIMR?
[6] Mars sample-return mission?
[7] Something else?

I think those courageous deceased
Columbia astronauts would have implored you to choose one, or two, of those SEVEN "choices" I've listed, rather than return the "billion dollars" to the US taxpayers this year.
And if there are 15-20 cancelled shuttle missions over the next three
years, that's 15-20 deferred shuttle launches x [200 million dollars/shuttle launch]...That's 3-4 billion dollars
that can go towards one, or two, of
those choices listed.
There is a "silver-cloud".

Jacob