By Science News
Tragedy travesty
The reporting of the activity surrounding the tragic loss of Columbia continues to anger me (“After the Tragedy,” SN: 9/27/03, p. 203: After the Tragedy). Columbia was lost because of program ignorance of a flight condition that should not have been permitted to exist or continue. It is a cruel and self-serving action to criticize a wonderful piece of engineering because its operators have been deficient.
Don Thompson
Garden Grove, Calif.
“The U.S. has lost 17 astronauts in space accidents . . . 17 years apart,” according to the article. During that same period, we killed 714,000 people in traffic crashes, yet no scientists have demanded that we ground all automobiles.