I saw a thin crescent Moon last night before I went to bed. In a way, this new Moon for our month symbolizes the start of a new era of humans in space. The new Moon started on the first, the same day as the accident. On that day, we realized we can not cut corners any more with space travel. We should never treat it as routine and we should give it our best effort.

This morning, the skies over East Texas were cold and clear as I left for work. The stars lazed by the thousands as if beaconing the human race to come join them.

The curiosity at what lies beyond the ocean horizon, or a new mountain range has always driven us forward. First the explorers, then the pioneers who settle, and then those who become native of a new land. In space we are still explorers. One day pioneers will follow, and then one day, a human will be born off the Earth.

Humans are still in space today. There are 3 in orbit right now. Not far from the home world, but they have their feet wet in the cosmic ocean (To borrow a Sagan quote).

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They found a possible Columbia part about 6 miles from my house. The official search area go all the way to the coast. Being 120 miles away from the center of were the debris fell (Nacogdoches) I didn’t think any would have made it this far south. I have a theory that the farther north and south debris landed from the center of the debris field, the earlier this debris broke off of the shuttle.

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Here is a question that has been bugging me about the theory that the insulation striking the belly of the wing caused this accident. If so, why has NASA not found any tiles around the launch site? Was the Shuttle over the ocean when this happened and so any tiles knocked off landed in the water. Would such loose tiles had been seen in the close-up of video of the insulation hitting the wing? I see vaporized insulation, but nothing that looks like tile coming off.