Posted 2/01/2006 05:16:00 PM by Douglas

February 1^st, 2003. Today, not a link in CNN, the Houston Chronicle, or just about anywhere else, except for NASAwatch and this blog from the Orlando Sentinel, which pretty much sums up my goggling for news:

I was surprised this morning at the dearth of news coverage on today’s third anniversary of the Columbia accident. A brief check of the web via spacetoday.net turned up only one U.S. newspaper, The Beaumont Enterprise, which carried a story. Beaumont is located near several of the small Texas towns where much of Columbia’s wreckage was recovered. In the blogosphere, NASA Watch is the only site I’ve found so far that gives the anniversary much play. Many news organizations, including the Sentinel, folded the Columbia milestone into stories last Saturday on the 20th anniversary of the Challenger disaster.

We can't remember forever, can we? When are we going to get back to flying? Are we? Should we? I don't know. I can't imagine a more fascinating endevour than the pursuit and achievement of manned spacetravel. To borrow an oft overused superlative, it's like nothing else on earth, but for once, the phrase is technically accurate. But when it comes down to a show of hand on the floor of Congress, the days of "white-collar welfare" are numbered. We'll see. How long 'till STS-121?

And don't miss the gallery of front pages from three years ago, or this collection of Columbia inspired cartoons. I think I'm beginning to understand why the 3^rd anniversary went so unnoticed. It's going to be a while before I can look at stuff like that again.