Never give up.

I slept in Saturday morning, getting up just before 8:00 AM CST, rather than the usual 6:30 AM. I was still somewhat sleep-groggy as I stood in the kitchen pondering breakfast. The phone rang. Caller ID told me by number that my folks were calling. This was unusual. My father asked if I'd been watching Columbia's descent and said that things went wrong... that is how I found out. Moments later I was watching TV, seeing the sickening trails played over and over.

Others have said quite a bit already about the appropriate response. There can be but one good one. Find out what happened. Make sure it can't happen again. Look around for similar problems and make sure they can't happen either. And go on. We can't gain back lives lost, but we can learn. We can build better. We can continue.

The world did not hear of the first explorers to not come back. Nor the next group that didn't. How many sailing/rowing ships never made it to home port? We don't know, but there were many. And yet people still sailed. How many tried to fly, and maybe even a flew a bit, only not to land safely? We've lost count. And yet people fly. How many dared to go into space, and didn't come back as planned? That number we think we know. And that number, sadly, will grow. But spaceships will fly.

The sea did not go away. Neither did we.
The blue sky did not go away. Neither did we.
Space will not go away. Neither should we.