NASA, good and bad The final, scathing report on the Columbia disaster has been released, and it details "persistent, systemic flaws" and "echoes" of Challenger. I remember reading the Challenger report in high school, and being appalled that such a thing could have been allowed to happen, and it amazes me that seventeen years later safety still does not seem to be a primary concern at NASA.



On a (much) lighter note, an unbelievable photograph of Mars was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope yesterday, with a second one to be released later today. (Thereby proving that even NASA gets things right every once in a while, although I believe it was Dave Barry who used the expression "Hubble Giant Orbiting Space Paperweight" during the years in which it didn't perform quite so well.)

  ¶ 7:55 AM