wan't sure about where to put this, but I think it fits here.

I sat in front of my computer last Saturday stunned, I cried, cursed and wondered what it must have been like. Why and How this had happened was foremost in my mind.

Then it struck me, seven souls, good and true, had stepped across the slim line that separates us from the greatest unknown.
The best of the best, lost to us. They were Fathers, Mothers, Husbands, Wives. Sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, the grief was deep, and still remains.

Knowing what I do about the kind of people who ride the fire into the heavens, I believe this.

They didn’t panic, reacting as trained professionals, there might have been inner turmoil, but an outward calm. They believe the risks of climbing into the most complicated machine ever built is worth it. They light the fuse and shake rattle and roll into orbit knowing the odds, but willing to accept the risks for the accumulation of knowledge.

Years of training combined with supreme courage held them together in the last few seconds, with the virtual certainty there was no way out. I believe they fought the ship all the way, never giving up.

These are those who dare, they who walk the very bleeding edge of Human knowledge and Technologies. They stare into the unknown and never blink.

They have been with us for a long time that kind of Human. This kind is why we are where we are, and why we shall one day step out into the limitless void beyond this single solar system.

The way from here, to there is long and dangerous, there will be mistakes made, accidents will happen. And some will pay the ultimate price.

The repeated debate rages once more. Why send Humans into space? Send machines, if they don’t make it back, no big deal.

Bullshit!

Some will not come back, that is certain - and inevitable. Each loss will hurt as badly as this one.

But - I stand firmly on this, Humanity has a deep need to know someone is out there. A human being that is feeding the fire of the imagination, stoking the furnaces of our dreams, beckoning kindred souls to venture further.

Humanity needs the spiritual calling, we need the dreams, we yearn to hear, to know that another human is venturing away from the safety of this tiny Planet.

That is part of being human. It is what has driven us for millennia.

It is what feeds our collective soul.

On a clear night go outside and look up, and know wonder.

That wonder is why they risk so much, and others will continue to do so.