No disrespect to those who lost their lives that day, but the crew photo for that mission looked like the cover photo of a Federal EEOC enforcement manual.
Perhaps not coincidentally, so did the photo of the ill-fated Columbia mission years later:
Posted on 01/18/2016 6:17:27 PM PST by truthfinder9
January 28th marks 30 years since the Challenger Disaster.
Seems so long ago, yet it is one of those days people never forget. School was out that day, probably because of bad weather, and I remember watching on television the news showing the explosion over and over.
I will never forget.
We didn’t give up on spaceflight that day, but I wish more would have seen the real promise of the Final Frontier. Instead, many in government still see it as another “get-elected-for-a-few-years†opportunity. The vision of government sees only through the next election cycle, not seven generations hence.
There are those who are far more forward in their thinking. Those who are tired of the others who have given up on the human spirit of adventure. The spirit that created pioneers, frontiersman and explorers. That spirit is in all of us, even if those in power have forgotten.
We can best remember and honor the Challenger 7, and all those astronauts who light up the sky on the National Astronaut Memorial, by looking and forging ahead.
By remembering pioneers are still needed, frontiers need explored and danger can never be eliminated.
Honor those who tried, those who failed, those who succeeded and those who gave the last full measure.
Let the future not say we gave up, forgot or ignored.
If we do, there will be no future to look back on us.
Damn, am I really that old? I remember watching that on TV.
We didn’t give up spaceflight that day. We gave up spaceflight when the next moon mission became skylab.
I was in middle school, 13 years old in the 7th grade (Cue 80s music). A group of kids came in and started laughing at the TV screen and was promptly suspended. I watched the screen rather indifferently until the Teacher told me what was going on. Yes, can’t believe it was that long ago either.
No, it took until 2011 for that to happen.
I was at college, walking by the student union with the tv and long rows of cube couches for commuter students to park themselves between classes.Sat down at that tv for the rest of the day, missed all my classes.
Stayed home from work but came out to watch the liftoff. Couldn’t believe what we saw. Numb.
Watched it live and in person on the ground in Titusville, FL. from the parking lot of my high school. A lifetime later, I watched Columbia live and in person on the ground in DFW through the sunroof of my car.
we both are that old. I remember watching it on tv myself...
Her mother’s facial expressions, I’ll never forget it. Joy turned to confusion, disbelief then heartsick. It was like being punched in the stomach, I literally felt her pain.
I was in my lunch break at work in Electronics Park Bdlg #6 Cathode Ray Tube Operations, when it was on TV and saw it explode. It was one of those moments.
I was around 20 miles from Dodge City, KS, waiting for two other people. When the first one showed up she told me the Challenger had exploded.
The first question and answer: Yes, the school teacher too.
3rd grade. Home from school, too, and I can’t remember why. But I watched it with my dad & it’s one of those pivotal moments in my childhood.
I wasn’t far from you then. I was in Frisco getting ready for a job interview.
I believe the address is still on YouTube. Unlike President Numnutz’s self-serving bloviations, President Reagan's speech showed true leadership.
Shared an apartment with a friend, he woke me up to tell me about it.
Challenger disaster. Very tragic and sad. Seems like five years ago. Please, hold the Christine jokes although they did relieve a lot of stress.
I have family members on the designing crew of the Shuttle and learned that the problem was hasty production of the O-rings. The solution is to encourage employees to get a full night’s sleep and to encourage the careful production of parts.
The image of the five white smoke lines expanding further and further apart still brings sadness.
Canceling the Shuttle program and deleting 200K jobs in Los Angeles was the cruel act of selfish and crazy politicians.
I remember when National Geographic called the Shuttle the best machine ever in history. True.
I was up early in California in the San Francisco Bay Area, and I was on Free Republic. I was sipping my cup of coffee and remembered that it was supposed to be visible overhead. 'Should I go out and look? Nah, too sleepy still.'
I was living rent-free at a relatives house at the time as they went to Florida for the winter and it was my job to keep an eye on their house and the driveway shoveled. I immediately went to that house and spent the rest of the afternoon watching the coverage on their old fashioned TV with the rabbit ears. They even had a rotary phone in the hallway on top of a doily on a small round table. That was a very strange winter. The next year, I got married.
No disrespect to those who lost their lives that day, but the crew photo for that mission looked like the cover photo of a Federal EEOC enforcement manual.
Perhaps not coincidentally, so did the photo of the ill-fated Columbia mission years later:
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