Columbia, Columbia, to glory rise,
The queen of the world, and the child of the skies!
Thy genius commands thee; with rapture behold,
While ages on ages thy splendours unfold.
Thy reign is the last, and the noblest of time,
Most fruitful they soil, most inviting thy clime.
Let the crimes of the east ne'er encrimson thy name,
Be freedom, and science, and virtue, thy fame.

The life of a Sabbath-observer can, on Saturdays, be an isolated one - which is, of course, partially the point.
Walking through my apartment building on Saturday afternoon, I passed a woman who said, passing me by, "Everyone's in shock."
"Everyone's in shock about what?" I thought, running through a few possibilities:
1) President Bush had been assassinated,
2) Terrorists had mounted another massive attack killing untold numbers of americans, or
3) North Korea had used a nuclear weapon against Seoul.
This is one example of the post-9/11 thought process.
I ran downstairs and asked my doorman (who usually has a TV or radio at the desk) what had happened. He filled me in.
My first thought was: "What a tragedy, especially for the families and for Israel."
My second thought was: "Thank God that's all it was."
This is a second example of the post-9/11 thought process.
I realize that thought #2 sounds incredibly callous. But 9/11 raised the bar on what constitutes an overwhelming national tragedy.
For gentler expressions of similar concepts, see these items by Jonah Goldberg and Glenn Reynolds.

I hope this tragedy will serve as an impetus to rethink the principles governing our space program. Rand Simberg has some thoughts, as does James Bennet. Paul Krugman has a good overview of the cost/benefit ratios of the status quo. Charles Krauthammer proposes a new direction.
Gregg Easterbrook has one of the most anticipated pieces, in which he argues vociferously that the shuttle must be shut down. (Rand Simberg responds to his arguments here.) Easterbrook has more credibility than almost any other journalist on the subject, due to his frighteningly prescient 1980 article for the Washington Monthly about the shuttle's design flaws.

Most importantly, condolences and prayers to all the families affected by the tragedy.
Here's a link to the cover of Easterbrook's 1980 article.

And here's a link to the picture of the drawing taken by Ilan Ramon into space, a copy of one drawn by Peter Ginz, a teenaged Holocaust victim: