"NASA was close to naming CNN correspondent Miles O'Brien as the first American journalist in space when the Columbia accident occurred in 2003," the Orlando Sentinel reports. "For CNN's 45-year-old space correspondent and weekday news anchor, the Columbia accident finished a lifelong dream that was tantalizingly close to becoming a reality."

"It was a devastating thing, because it was something I had been focusing on for so long," said O'Brien, who already was making plans to move to Houston for astronaut training. A very interesting story... (Via Romenesko)