Seven Lives

On any given day, about 6,600 people die in the USA. Mostly of disease, though about 270 of those deaths will be caused by accidents.

On a typical day in Texas, two or thee people fall to their deaths.

February first was not a typical day. Another seven people lost their lives that day.

Those 6,600 dead have friends and loved ones who mourn their passing. Communities that are diminished by their loss. So what’s so special about the seven? Admittedly they are the best and the brightest. Reading the resume of an astronaut always makes me wonder “how many lifetimes did this person have to accomplish all this?” But there’s obviously much more than that. Despite occasional sniping that manned space flight is risky, inefficient, showy, and that it doesn’t produce better science than unmanned missions, the fact remains that astronauts are invested with the highest of all our aspirations. When they fail, we feel it viscerally as a setback — not for NASA, not for some experiment, but for being something more than we are.