So today is my 19th birthday... the big 19. I dunno, I remember back when I was a kid, how much I looked forward to my birthday. Now it's nothing special... just like any other day. "Another day... lying in my bed, another day staring at the ceiling... I'm used to it by now." ~ Telepopmusik - Breathe

We discussed the Columbia incident today in dynamics class. The professor told us about the thermal tiles and about typical re-entry and attitude adjustment. Apparently the big key now is to see what debris is found the farthest northwest to tell what probably broke off first. And I didn't know this before, but the shuttle orbiters are the primary means of keeping the international space station in orbit- they connect the shuttle to the station and fire the shuttle boosters. That's one reason why shuttles are important I suppose, until the ISS gets its own propulsion systems.