Feb. 5, '03 Columbia & Genesis
So here are some more thoughts on the Columbia-Columba symbolism. These are only rough ideas at this point, but they do seem to conjure up a coherent grand picture.
First, as people have been pointing out, we seem to have '16' as the key encoded number of the event: Columbia was launched on the 16th day of the month, the STS-107 mission lasted 16 days, the shuttle broke apart 16 min before landing, etc. And as for what it signifies, it is certainly interesting that January '03 is 16 months away from September 2001 -- meaningful especially considering that there is the 'Great Flood' connection between the events of Columbia and 9/11 as mentioned previously.

And then there is also the number '7'. The shuttle Columbia carried seven astronauts; we have constellation Columba's seven stars, depicted in the STS-107 patch; and in Genesis 8:8-12, the dove (= Columba) is repeatedly associated with 'seven days'.

According to Genesis, it was the second time Noah sent out Columba -- the dove -- to investigate the condition of the flood that it came back with an olive branch. This has a remarkable implication due to the combination of the following coincidences: 1) the olive tree is closely associated with Jewish people; 2) Columbia was carrying onboard the first Israeli astronaut; 3) STS-107 was the second mission of Columbia since 9/11/01; and 4) the STS-107 mission was originally scheduled for the fall of 2001 but got delayed because of the 'Great Flood' event of 9/11!

It is thus strongly inferred that Columbia was indeed playing the role of Noah's dove and the high-impact event was the continuation of the underlying symbolic pattern attached to 9/11.

Another Genesis connection is how the Columbia disaster can relate to the Tower of Babel -- the modern version of which was destroyed in the 9/11 attacks (i.e. the WTC towers) as extensively discussed on this website.

STS-107 -- despite the 'flight tail number' -- was the 113th shuttle mission. (The combination of NASA and the number '13' historically entails bad news.) And using '113' as the index number, we come to Genesis 11:3 (i.e. '113'), which just happens to be the verse where the Babel-Tower story begins:

And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them throughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter. And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven... [Genesis 11:3-4]

This now encourages us to use other key numbers of Columbia to look up other Genesis verses.

Using the launch date, 1/16, we find Genesis 1:16, which reads:

And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.

Well, could this perhaps relate to Columbia and its heavenly companion, the ISS (space station), in the sky? What's intriguing here is that both Columbia and the ISS are associated with the love goddess: the dove is traditionally symbolic of the goddess such as Isis, and 'ISS' is 'ISiS'. And in the heavens, Isis is represented by the brightest night star, Sirius - a 'great light'. So Columbia and the ISS could be fittingly described as 'two great lights'. The fact that Columbia crashed in Texas, the 'Lone Star State', enhances the connection as it would identify the space shuttle as the 'lone star' (i.e. one of the 'two great lights').

What about February 1, the date of the disaster itself? As we go to Genesis '2:1', we find this passage:

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.

As we continue on to the next verse, we'll see that the beginning of Genesis' chapter 2 is about the seventh day of Creation:

And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. [Genesis 2:2]

So, in addition to the potential correlation we see between the 'heaven and earth' reference and the shuttle Columbia conceptually uniting heaven and earth, we have another 'seven' ('seventh day') attached to the event.

It's almost as if we are supposed to count seven days from the date catastrophically marked by Columbia. And this would give us either Feb. 8 or Feb. 7, depending on how you count the days. The latter date (Feb. 7) -- the 'seventh day' -- is curious in that it is Friday - or Venus' Day. Venus being an alter ego of Isis-Sirius, perhaps there is some connection here.

It is when we convert the date into a Genesis verse, 2:7, that things get more intriguing. The verse happens to be one of the most famous passages in the Bible:

And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed in to his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. [Gen. 2:7]

It's talking about the creation of Adam, the first man!

And this association begins to paint a bigger picture for us.

As we know, Adam was placed in Eden, which is usually thought to have been in Mesopotamia, or today's Iraq. Before the Columbia disaster, the daily news headlines were all about Iraq, and the near-war situation is still continuing today.

Other important developing stories taking place right now are the issues of cloning (began with Clonaid' controversial announcement in Dec. '02) and Mars (Project Prometheus revealed in Jan. '03).

Note that the creation of Adam certainly evokes cloning, especially in light of this Genesis passage:

And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness... So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him... [Gen. 1:26-7]

And of course, Clonaid's first supposedly cloned baby was given the name 'Eve' - the first woman... And the first cloned boy, i.e. "Adam", was supposedly born in mid-January '03 according to Clonaid - when Columbia was in space.

As for Mars and Project Prometheus, let's go back to what I wrote in the Jan. 20, '03 update:

So, Project Prometheus is about to associate our Genesis with Mars. Is there a message here? Well, you might also consider the fact that the name 'Adam', the first man created by 'God' (or in Greek mythology, Prometheus), can denote something like 'red earth'. Hmm... :) [emphasis added]

Well, I guess there is no need to elaborate here.

Mars, genetic engineering, Mesopotamia, the Flood... This is the story of Genesis. And it's occurring again right now.