Well, I haven't seen the news yet, but I gather, more or less, what happened. What a tragedy! As samT said, astronauts and cosmonauts have also been my heroes too. I can't imagine anything more wonderful than staring down at earth from space. (Am currently re-reading Arthur C Clarke's 'Rama' series). Every astronaut who has been in space has said the same thing. "When you look down at the Earth, you don't see any borders between countries.... just one world" These people are true heroes. mac