NASA Day of Remembrance & Stardust

Yesterday NASA recognized a Day of Remembrance for those astronauts lost in service. When you think about all the risks these brave men and women take and consider how few over the years have been lost I have to wonder why anyone would question the value of space flight versus the risks. But hey, that's just me.

The crews of Apollo 1, Challenger and Columbia (as President George W. Bush said of Columbia's crew) "knew the dangers and they faced them willingly knowing they had a high and noble purpose in life." For more info check out www.nasa.gov

Stardust Update: "The Principal investigator, Deputy Principal Investigator and several subteam leads have worked 8:00 am until near midnight for the last two days. We have removed many aerogel fragments and found many particles in them; removed 7 pieces of aluminum foil and found very many small craters in them; removed several particles from the fragments and examined them by IR; microtomed several particles; remove two Wild 2 aerogel cells from the tray; and sliced one of the removed aerogel cell with the harmonic saw. " For more info and a really cool photo of the aerogel fragments check out www.nasa.gov

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