I've got to agree with the much-maligned Paul Krugman that manned space flight is just too expensive. But I'm talking here about the financial cost, not that of human life. Erica Goode writes about how for most people, the astronauts' deaths were different

from the faceless deaths of people whose lives end on the highway, in bathtubs, in hospital beds, in the deserts of Afghanistan....The astronauts' deaths were vivid, unexpected, the bearers of symbolic weight. They represented, said Dr. Daniel Gilbert, a psychologist at Harvard, something greater than the simple loss of life. They were personal, involving, in the language of researchers who study death's effects on the public, "identified" rather than "statistical" victims [for most people]....Reason dictates that statistics matter, that the deaths of tens of thousands merit more attention � and more resources � than the deaths of a few.

Finally, a sentence I can relate to. Still, for most people,

Symbols compel a response, while substance is frequently ignored. Sympathy flows to those portrayed as the saddest, the bravest, the most beloved. The masses, though their need may be larger, fend for themselves.

It may be "normal", but it sounds unreasonable to me, particularly as all of us should have been fully aware of the risks; Charles Krauthammer:

The risk of catastrophe for a commercial jet is 1 in 2 million. For a fighter jet, it is 1 in 20,000. NASA's best estimate for the shuttle was 1 in 240. Our experience now tells us that it is about 1 in 50.

I know, I know, I sound overly harsh, but people die tragic deaths--and live tragic lives--every day, and the unfortunate astronauts carry no symbolic weight for me.