I guess many of us feel close to the astronauts. I did security clearance investigations for many of them, so I felt I knew some of them very well. My parents sold our family home in Wisconsin to the family of Laurel Clark, who died in the Columbia disaster in 2003. I suppose it's a stretch to say that she and I grew up in the same house - she would have been in college by the time her parents bought the house.
Still, it feels like there's a connection.
-Joe-