The space shuttle Columbia broke apart over central Texas early Saturday morning. All seven astronauts are presumed dead. NASA officials at the Johnson Space Center in Houston said they lost contact with Columbia around 9 a.m., roughly 15 minutes before it was scheduled to land. Among the seven crewmembers was Israel’s first astronaut, Ilan Ramon, who said earlier this week that he wished the Middle East were as peaceful as it looked from space. The other six astronauts were Americans. Columbia was the oldest NASA shuttle, having first flown in 1981. This was its 28th mission. There is no indication this was a terrorist incident.
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