On the morning of February 1st, the world awoke to the news that the U.S. Space Shuttle Columbia had ripped apart over Texas. The implications were so numerous and so far-reaching that truly fathoming the impact was nearly impossible. The breakup of the Columbia took with it more than the lives of seven astronauts--including that of Israel's first astronaut, Colonel Ilan Ramon--and hundreds of scientific experiments. It dashed many of the hopes of those who saw NASA's work as a mission of humanity--a nonpolitical effort in a world that had become more political each passing day. During an era when the words "war" and "terror" pepper news reports with feverish pitch, this was a mission of science, of discovery, of advancement.

Returning to earth with those seven astronauts, tucked into the corner of that shuttle, was a little publicized experiment created by five Israeli teenagers from ORT Kiryat Motzkin School, students ranging in age from 14 to 17. The experiment, which studied how zero gravity affected the development of crystals, was among six from schools in Australia, China, Israel, Japan, Liechtenstein and the United States. As members of Women's American ORT, a major supporter of ORT Israel, we found the news of the tragedy especially hard.

Those students had journeyed to Florida to watch the shuttle carrying their experiment rocket into orbit, starry-eyed with the dreams of space exploration and of a better world united in its endeavor for knowledge. For now, those dreams must be shelved and those students return to Israel to continue their studies in science and technology in the wake of war.

Yet the Columbia tragedy cannot diminish the remarkable achievements of those ORT Israel students and the others whose ideas took off with the shuttle. In an interview during the mission, Ilan Ramon told CNN Space Correspondent Miles O'Brien, "I feel like I represent, first of all, of course, the state of Israel and the Jews, but I represent also all our neighbors. And I hope it will contribute to the whole world, and especially to our Middle East neighbors." The hope for peace, to be sure, is not bound by limitations, but by those who are willing to let their dreams take flight.