Teachers in Space project logo for mission STS 51-L
Posted on 01/26/2006 11:53:26 AM PST by NormsRevenge
Teachers in Space project logo for mission STS 51-L
Grace Corrigan, right, mother of teacher-astronaut Christa McAuliffe, speaks with Sue Darnell-Ellis, of Kentucky, left, and Carolyn Dobbins, of Tenn., center, who were both in the NASA's Teacher-in-Space Program with McAuliffe in 1985, after the showing of the documentary, 'Christa McAuliffe: Reach for the Stars,' Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2006, at Framingham, Mass. State College, McAuliffe's alma mater. The showing commemorates the 20th anniversary of the Challenger explosion in 1986, in which McAuliffe and six other astronauts died. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)
I recently saw something on a NASA poster about the reusable boosters that said they had had more than 3 decades of safe flight. Is this just the Challenger down the memory hole?
RIP
I remember when that happened. I was 5 years old, and I was at home sick. My mom turned on the launch on Tv, since I was a space nut. It was almost immediately clear that something was wrong. When it was confirmed, I made a card with ink stamps and sent it to NASA. I got a letter from NASA in response, and it is now framed at my parents' house.
Feels like 1986 was yesterday to me. I was young too: 11 at the time.
I was in 5th grade. Our class watched it happen on TV.
Challenger is my generation's "Do you remember where you were when..." event. I vividly remember being in the lounge of my college dorm and overhearing the announcement from the television in the next room. Everyone was stunned and silent. I felt my heart sink. It was a very sad day.
I was working that day, and one of our more typically hysterical people came into the office shouting that the shuttle had exploded. Since she had a reputation for flying off the handle, I figured it had suffered some malfunction, or one of the engines had shut down early, or even that she had seen the SRB sep and didn't know what it meant.
Then I turned on the radio.
I spent my lunch break at the nearby mall watching the aftermath on a department store TV, and that night I wrote a letter to President Reagan urging that the space program continue as a way of honoring the lives of the astronauts.
I still choke up every time I hear "Go for throttle-up" during a launch.
Norm Nice!! Thanks for posting the thread!
I'm no spring chicken like you kids,
but it sure doesn't seem like 20 years
to me, either!
We may have met.... I had just started working for Rockwell then. We were up in the old MDAC building, listening to NASA select on the radio. I still remember it like it was yesterday.
I was in third grade. It was unbelievable.
Ladies and gentlemen, I'd planned to speak to you tonight to report on the state of the union, but the events of earlier today have led me to change those plans. Today is a day for mourning and remembering. Nancy and I are pained to the core by the tragedy of the shuttle Challenger. We know we share this pain with all of the people of our country. This is truly a national loss.
Nineteen years ago, almost to the day, we lost three astronauts in a terrible accident on the ground. But we've never lost an astronaut in flight; we've never had a tragedy like this. And perhaps we've forgotten the courage it took for the crew of the shuttle; but they, the Challenger Seven, were aware of the dangers, but overcame them and did their jobs brilliantly. We mourn seven heroes: Michael Smith, Dick Scobee, Judith Resnik, Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Gregory Jarvis, and Christa McAuliffe. We mourn their loss as a nation together.
For the families of the seven, we cannot bear, as you do, the full impact of this tragedy. But we feel the loss, and we're thinking about you so very much. Your loved ones were daring and brave, and they had that special grace, that special spirit that says, "Give me a challenge and I'll meet it with joy." They had a hunger to explore the universe and discover its truths. They wished to serve, and they did. They served all of us.
We've grown used to wonders in this century. It's hard to dazzle us. But for 25 years the United States space program has been doing just that. We've grown used to the idea of space, and perhaps we forget that we've only just begun. We're still pioneers. They, the members of the Challenger crew, were pioneers.
And I want to say something to the school children of America who were watching the live coverage of the shuttle's takeoff. I know it is hard to understand, but sometimes painful things like this happen. It's all part of the process of exploration and discovery. It's all part of taking a chance and expanding man's horizons. The future doesn't belong to the fainthearted; it belongs to the brave. The Challenger crew was pulling us into the future, and we'll continue to follow them.
I've always had great faith in and respect for our space program, and what happened today does nothing to diminish it. We don't hide our space program. We don't keep secrets and cover things up. We do it all up front and in public. That's the way freedom is, and we wouldn't change it for a minute. We'll continue our quest in space. There will be more shuttle flights and more shuttle crews and yes, more volunteers, more civilians, more teachers in space. Nothing ends here; our hopes and our journeys continue.
I want to add that I wish I could talk to every man and woman who works for NASA or who worked on this mission and tell them: "Your dedication and professionalism have moved and impressed us for decades. And we know of your anguish. We share it."
There's a coincidence today. On this day 390 years ago, the great explorer Sir Francis Drake died aboard ship off the coast of Panama. In his lifetime the great frontiers were the oceans, and a historian later said, "He lived by the sea, died on it, and was buried in it." Well, today we can say of the Challenger crew: Their dedication was, like Drake's, complete.
The crew of the space shuttle Challenger honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives. We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved good-bye and "slipped the surly bonds of earth" to "touch the face of God."
I was stationed in Korea - woke up to prepare for work and turned the radio on to a very excited announcer telling of the tragedy.
Wow...has it really been twenty years?
I was nine...it was our first year of homeschooling. We were watching the launch when the explosion happened. I just remember looking over at Mom, not really understanding what had just happened - it was very fast. It was a shock when I learned that it was gone, just like that, with all those people.
Thanks for posting Reagan's wonderful and eloquent speech. On reading it, it seems even more poignant today than it did that day. It brought a tear to my eye again.
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