It's amazing what we take for granted, how some of the most amazing accomplishments become boring, ordinary and routine. Space is an accomplishment that is not ordinary, boring or routine.

Imagine being those first astronauts in space, Russian astronaut Yuri Garigan and then our own John Glen. For them, this was not routine. Nor was it a routine for the world. These first two endeavors into space inspired dreams in children and adults alike, confirmed the successes of both countries, and opened up the doors to endless possibilities.

But then America became complacent. From the tragedy of Apollo 1 to the scare of possibly losing Apollo thirteen to the loss of the space shuttle Challenger, America has a habit of failing to notice the great accomplishments happening right under their noses until we have great loss.

Now, we just lost the Columbia, and one has to wonder how long will we remember this time?

The Monday after Columbia exploded, I sat down at lunch, and for once, the cafeteria buzzed with something other than the usual conversations consisting of that guy over there, what happened at Saturday's party, that girl's ugly outfit and ohmigod!-My-boyfriend's-cheating-on-me-we're-only-fifteen-I-thought-we-were-going-to-get-married! Everyone was talking about the shuttle tragedy.

The lunch group I sit with realized we couldn't even name all the shuttles. We had no idea that there was a shuttle in space, let alone that the first Israeli and the first Indian astronaut were on board. These are both milestones in history, and we had no idea.

What makes people turn around and see a tragedy rather than the good that's going on the whole time? Why don't we take excitement in the fact that sensational successes are happening rather than the sensational failures? Why does it take a tragedy to turn out a short time of appreciation for what we have?

What we had were seven astronauts who knew of the risk involved, but who went ahead anyway and did their jobs to the best of their ability. What we have at NASA are many people who are brilliant, physicists, mathematicians, engineers, problem solvers and leaders.

But they were more than just astronauts. Maybe what turns America around is the fact that people lost their spouses, children lost their parents, parents lost their children, people lost their friends, and countries lost their heroes.

Maybe, now that we have suffered yet another tragedy, we will remember that there are people who are being strapped to a giant fuel tank and shot off into space for the sake of knowledge, risking their lives and each time coming back knowing something we hadn't known before.

Maybe now, we should start to appreciate what we have before we lose it. Remember them before all that is left is a bunch of flowers in front of Johnson Space Center or a huge monument at Kennedy, or faced with the possibility that they may not return home. Remember that the lives lost in the space programs history were never in vain, because they died doing something they loved and were passionate about. And those living continue living to do the same. Remember.