Space Shuttle Columbia (STS 107)

I'm sure everyone in the dpas was as shocked as we were by the news of the loss of the crew of Space Shuttle Mission STS 107 on February 1st.

These flights for me have always helped to balance out some of the more squalid aspects of the human race. I've followed the exploits of NASA since the days of the early Apollo launches (the first album I ever bought was not a rock record, but an LP of a Gemini space flight assembled from mission control tapes), but this one had personal interest after being in touch with Astronaut Kalpana Chawla's partner over the Deep Purple music used on the mission.

Our commiserations to the families of all the crew.

Simon Robinson, 1/02/03