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THERE is something especially shocking about the death of a shuttle crew. The loss is felt more keenly than seven deaths on the road or even in a plane crash. Cynics may scoff that public reaction is overly sentimental and question the sense of sending people into space, but that doesn’t alter the fact that astronauts are courageous people. Their job is to risk their lives in pursuit of what seems to be a basic human need – to explore beyond our usual frontiers. It was a tragedy when Robert Scott died in Antarctica 90 years ago, and it is…