A weird thought that struck me.

[xiphias]

The first shuttle disaster killed Judith Resnick, the first Jew in space. This one killed Ilan Ramon, the first Israeli in space.

The other thing which strikes me is that the Challenger disaster was on Jan 28, 1986. The Apollo pad fire was Jan 27, 1967. This one was Feb 1, 2003.

It's just a damn bad week for NASA, historically.

Virgil I Grissom
Edward H White
Roger B Chaffee
Francis R Scobee
Michael J Smith
Ellison S Onizuka
Ronald E McNair
Gregory B Jarvis
Sharon Christa McAuliffe
Rick D Husband
William C McCool
Michael P Anderson
David M Brown
Kalpana Chawla
Laurel Blair Salton Clark
Ilan Ramon