SMOKING GUNS: Already the “advance warning” stories are coming out: Here’s one in the Washington Post and here’s one in the Boston Herald. But these kind of miss the point: everyone who knew anything about the Shuttle knew it was dangerous — among my space-community friends, the estimate was that it would average one crash out of fifty launches. (Believing that, most of us would have gone anyway — I would.)

Like so many things, the press will focus on the short-term, looking for “whistleblowers” and “smoking gun” memos. But the real problem goes back to the original design decisions for the Shuttle, made in the early 1970s, in which the desire to save a few billion dollars up front imposed long term costs, and dangers, on the nation down the line.

UPDATE: Tim Blair notes that various idiots are already trying to make political hay.