Remembering the Challenger 20 years later: Beautiful tribute by the Washington Post

The Washington Post ^ | January 28, 2006

[nwrep]

"...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 goodbye, and slipped the surly bonds of Earth to touch the face of God." -- President Reagan Addresses the Nation, January 28, 1986

[solitas]

Probably the most eloquent words ever spoken by written for Ronald Reagan.

[Names Ash Housewares]

"Am I reading this wrong, or does this implicitly suggest that the Challenger crew might have survived the initial explosion?"

The shuttle broke up because of aerodynamic forces in the aftermath of the tank explosion. The crew cabin was torn free basically intact though it had lost pressurization. They did not wear pressure suits then so at that altitude they would have lost conciousness very quickly. Several emergency oxygen sources had been turned on, some of them were able to do this after the explosion. Those were not designed for high altitude use however. I dont know if oxygen makes much difference at that altitude anyways because there is no useful atmospheric pressure for lungs to work properly. Maybe someone can answer that.

The G-forces on them must have been extreme as well, that may have blacked them out, not sure on that. As they descended in free fall atmospheric pressure and oxygen would have increased, i dont know how quick someone regains conciousness in that quick a descent.

Todays astronauts wear pressure suits and have parachutes and a slide pole (so as not to hit the wing) to get out of the crew cabin. At least that would provide a fighting chance to get out. I often wonder if the Challneger crew had had that equipment, could they have gotten out somehow?

I think there is lots of info on the net out there on all this.

God I wish there was someway to change history. All we can do is learn from it. I dont beat NASA up as much for Columbia, they had 100+ flights and assumed they understood the foam issue. The sin of assumption is unforgiving in such endeavours. We are very new to space travel still. And we learn as much about human shortcomings as much as we learn about exploration when we dare great things.

[BykrBayb]

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."

Those words still move me.

[Pyro7480]

The shuttle broke up because of aerodynamic forces in the aftermath of the tank explosion.

The shuttle/external tank/solid rocket booster combination broke apart a few seconds before the propellants combusted. See the link in my post #37 for an explanation.

[latina4dubya]

The first person to show (at 0600) was an undergrad who was interested in space, and who is now my wife!

wow! that's an amazing story...

[BykrBayb]

OMG! The president had a speech writer?!

[latina4dubya]

What I remember most about that day is how blase we had become about the shuttle missions until that day.

i remember that it kept being postponed... i was a sophomore in college... i remember my mom telling me the night before that it might happen in the morning... when i awoke the next morning, i asked her if she knew if it was going to launch or if it had launched... she said it was still postponed... and then a little later she said, no--it was back on... and then disaster...

[latina4dubya]

i cannot believe it's been 3 yrs. since Columbia...

[latina4dubya]

i remember the face of Christa McAuliffe's mother... it seemed she didn't know what happened at first... how could she? it seems it took an eternity for the realization of what happened to sink in for everybody watching...

[latina4dubya]

did he not speak the words?

[epow]

But I can still see it vividly in my mind.

So can I.

I was driving across the Sunshine Skyway in FL when it happened. I was trying to see the launch, which is usually visible from the Skyway if the weather is clear, when I suddenly saw the burst of white smoke from the explosion and then a forked trail of smoke forming in the bright blue sky over 100 miles away.

I knew instantly that something awful had happened to the shuttle, and I quickly tuned the radio to a Tampa news station and heard the tragic news being reported from the cape.

I guess that's one of those things that will always stick in a person's mind.

[epow]

For my parents, it was JFK's assassination. For me, it was the Challenger. For you, it will be this."

For me it was all three. I remember exactly the moment and place where I learned of each one of those tragedies. But the only one that I actually saw live as it happened was the Challenger explosion.

[epow]

Great poem for us old aviation buffs.

If I'm not mistaken, (which is entirely possible) Magee was an RAF fighter pilot who was killed when his Hawker Hurricane was shot down in the Battle of Britain.

[Pyro7480]

Portrait of the Challenger crew in a hallway of the U.S. Capitol, Washington, DC

[Pyro7480]

To honor the seven crew members of the space shuttle Challenger, Republican Leader Robert Dole of Kansas and Democratic Leader Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia proposed that a commemorative mural be placed in the Senate wing of the U.S. Capitol. The Senate Commission on Art, with the recommendation of a five-member advisory panel composed of museum professionals from the Smithsonian Institution, NASA, and the U.S. Capitol, selected Philadelphia artist Charles Schmidt for the commission. Schmidt's completed mural was placed in an empty oval in the Brumidi Corridors on the first floor of the Capitol's Senate wing, and unveiled on March 3, 1987.

[Junior]

Actually, he died in a training accident -- his plane collided with another one over England on December 11, 1941.

[FReepaholic]

...did anyone in the media blame Ronald Reagan for the tragedy?...

In a way, yes.

People speculated that NASA was pressured to launch in order for the President to be able to mention the teacher in his State of the Union address.

[moog]

We need even more people to reach out to the kids like that. What an eloquent statement it was.

[veronica]

I was getting ready to go out and the TV was on but I was out of the room. I heard the broadcast and it began to seep into my mind that the broadcaster was saying very strange things and when I walked into the TV room I could not believe what I was seeing. I watched the memorial on TV and as Nancy and the President walked up to the families and comforted them one by one I sobbed and sobbed. It was so sad...

[moog]

I think people in general have gotten more vicious since then. We need to stop trying to always blame the other guy and see what we can do ourselves to make society a little better.