How many of you remember the inventor, the late Buckminster Fuller?
He, like myself, was not afraid to speak his mind or air an opinion.
One of the most profound [and true] things he is quoted as saying is,
is that "we all live on a spaceship called Planet Earth".
Considering this latest space tragedy, it's become more poignant.

Consider this! Like any spaceship,
the Earth's life-sustaining environment
has some redundancy built in, BUT only
upto a point...And like any crewed spaceship, the Earth's "space-passengers" are vulnerable
to instant death from any number of sources.
Eg: One NEO asteroid, the size of
Rhode Island, or Manhattan, can kill off
every human being on this 'spaceship'.
I post this reminder so that you can recall just how dangerous it is just to cross the street, never mind stepping outside a spacecraft in orbit in a pressure-suit. [Larry posted a similar topic]
Death can come swiftly; in a blink-of-the-eye on the Earth, under it, or above it!
You're not guaranteed the next heart-beat!
You're not guaranteed life in the flesh a second from now!
So why do so many journalists question
the wisdom of taking risks?...Whether it's the risk of working in the bowels of a coal-mine, as a missionary in a dangerous foreign-land, as a seaman inside the steel cocoon of a nuke-sub 500 fathoms down, as a pilot landing on the deck of an aircraft carrier at 200 mph at night, or as an astronaut flying
a fragile metal container into orbit
at speeds approaching 5 miles per second?
I note that...if Columbus didn't take risks, you might not be an American, today.

Jacob