This year is the 100th anniversary of the Wright brothers' flight at Kitty Hawk. Just think where humankind has come with powered flight in just a century. And consider the many thousands of people who have died in aviation accidents in that time, including some of the most famous people of their time. Think back to the men and women who died in the early attempts to fly cross the country, the Atlantic, and other geographic spans around the globe, as well as to circumnavigate the globe, etc.
Even though we try to learn as much as possible after each accident in an attempt to prevent it from happening again, the very nature of powered flight is inherently dangerous. The wonder is not that we've lost the Challenger and Columbia, but that there have been so few fatal accidents in our still-priimitive attempts at space flight.
Far from wallowing in the usual recriminations, we should analyze what went wrong, fix it, and keep moving forward into space.
Accidents happen. More accidents will happen in the future. I am dismayed more by the fact that we've had only two fatal accidents in the last 20 years. We should have had many, many more manned space flights.
I'll gladly volunteer to go up in the next shuttle.