SORRY FOR THE HIATUS: I went to see Todd Rundgren (bad choice; more on that later). Meanwhile, here’s Mark Steyn:

Nonetheless, this will not be as traumatisingly mesmeric as the Challenger disaster. The yellow-ribbon era died with September 11: even if their television networks haven’t quite adjusted, Americans are tougher about these things; this is a country at war and one that understands how to absorb losses and setbacks.

What happened happened most likely because the Columbia was just so damn old and rusty. If anything, it symbolises not American “arrogance”, but what happens when the great youthful innovative spirit of the country is allowed to atrophy: the entire space programme is now dependent on a transit system a generation old. If Mr Bush really wanted to emphasise the gulf between his country and both the Islamist cave dwellers and “Old Europe”, he would announce a major renewal of the space project. A frontier is part of the US character.

For me, the saddest moment was during after-concert beers at the Old College Inn, when I heard a twentyish undergraduate wonder “do you think we’ll see a mission to Mars in our lifetimes?”

When I was 20, I didn’t wonder. But now, in my dark moments, I do.

See you tomorrow.