Today, as seven astronauts lose their lives in re-entry, 34 people are dead, and the death toll is rising after a horrific train crash in Zimbabwe. It is the third rail crash in that country in four months.
Update: 37 are confirmed dead, over 40 seriously injured as rescue workers continue their grim task.
A train crash in Australia Friday in Sydney killed 9 people. About 20 were seriously injured. It is believed that the 40C temperatures caused the tracks to buckle.

Challenger
On January 28th, 1986 when the Challenger exploded on take off, this is what was occuring in China.

Columbia

The American space agency Nasa says it has lost contact with the space shuttle Columbia about 15 minutes before it was due to land at the Kennedy space centre.

There were seven crew members aboard the shuttle - six Americans and the first Israeli in space.

It was not immediately clear what had happened to the shuttle, but there are reports of debris falling to the ground.

According to Nasa, the shuttle was about 200,000 feet up and travelling at 12,500 mph (20,000 kph) when contact was lost at about 0900 local time.

Although the space agency did not say what had happened to the shuttle, it warned that any debris found in the area should be avoided and could be hazardous.

In 42 years of human space flight, Nasa has never lost a space crew during landing.

If you have been watching the CBC coverage and heard a remark about American ‘arrogance’ (I didn’t) you can contact the CBC Ombudsman.
via Instapundit
Update:Ranting and Roaring is also watching CBC and like me, has not heard any inappropriate comments at this time. He is also covering all major media channels, and is right on top of the CBC coverage.
Update: Colby Cosh has information on the main CBC coverage.
Banana Counting Monkey lists the astronauts with his condolences.
Daimnation comments on the CBC. He is also following the conspiracy theorists.
Update:Ian’s Messy Desk has been watching and following the explosion.

Update:Slashdot has some comments that are in extremely poor taste.
Update:Joyful Christian is following American conspiracy threads.
gooddogbaddog on media coverage and forgetting.

Update:”The whole universe is my native land.” India mourns a woman of substance.
Update: Israeli’s are in shock as they mourn the loss of their first space traveller. The Israel PM’s site.

Update:A fitting eulogy from connexions.
Update: No Room for Gray mourns.
Update: looking back…looking forward also offers a moving eulogy.

Update: If you want to see weblog coverage, or add your own, Jim Flowers has set up a special meta blog.
Update: Dave Winer has done some meta blogging.

Here is the live update page from Spaceflight Now.
Rest in peace.