ABSTRACT
On the morning of February 1, 2003 seven astronauts died when the space shuttle Columbia broke up in the sky high over Texas and Louisiana while reentering the earth’s atmosphere. The event was immediately characterized as a disaster and the media interrupted its normal broadcasts to focus on the developing story. Within hours an independent review board was convened, headed by retired Admiral Harold W. Gehman Jr. (Broder with Oppel Jr. 2003). Almost unnoted in the ensuing discussions, and certainly of no great significance to commentators, was that these seven astronauts were also workers killed in the course of performing their jobs: six were members of the military (five American and one Israeli) and one a civilian employee of NASA (Shuttle Victims 2003).
