I was in Israel when the first Israeli astronaut -- Ilan Ramon -- went up with the Columbia (I still have a scrapbook with him smiling as he entered the shuttle)It was not just another ho-hum shuttle launch as it was in the US, for the most part. The embattled country (Israel in the middle of yet another intifada)was stunned into to a mourning, screeching halt when the Columbia was lost with all aboard.
The body betrays and the weather conspires, hopefully, not on the same day.
