Many students on this campus were too young to comprehend the space shuttle Challenger’s explosion in 1986. We grew up having faith in NASA engineers to keep our astronauts safe from harm and to have them returned home safely. We placed the space crews on a high pedestal because they were men and women who had seen space beyond Earth’s white, puffy clouds.

They were our heroes.

On Saturday, we learned that things can go wrong, and it can touch people’s lives all over the world.

The astronauts aboard Columbia were just like any other human beings. They had children, brothers and sisters, parents and close friends closely monitoring their progress during the 16-day mission. They were from Washington state, Texas, Virginia, India, Israel and Wisconsin. All were fulfilling dreams of being in space — some for the first time.

One of the seven, Laurel Clark, was born right here in Ames. The Navy commander had not always entertained dreams of becoming an astronaut, her brother Dan Salton said in a Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel story on Sunday. But flying in space was just something that was meant to be, he said.

“Hello from above our magnificent planet Earth,” Clark wrote in an e-mail to her family from the Columbia. “The perspective is truly awe-inspiring.”

In the e-mail to family she described being able to see a lighthouse on the shore of Lake Michigan. Family members said she was elated about her opportunity.

There was also Kalpana Chawla, who was described growing up as “a wiry little tomboy” who fell in love with flying while growing up in India.

She was a national hero to her country, with her face plastered on magazines and children running through the streets of her hometown with crowns that read, “Kalpana is our pride,” according to The Washington Post.

The mission also marked the first space flight for an Israeli. Ilan Ramon was also considered a national hero, and a welcome distraction from the war that is tearing his country apart. Ramon, a son of a Holocaust survivor, carried a picture that was drawn by a Jewish boy in a concentration camp that depicted a view of Earth from the moon.

We should also honor the other crew members, who died fulfilling their dreams: Rick Husband, William McCool, Michael Anderson and David Brown.

During a telecast from space a few days before re-entry, Clark talked about how wonderful her experience had been. Her words, today, are a reminder that the Columbia crew are still our heroes: “Life continues in lots of places and life is a magical thing.”