Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster - 20 Years

20 years ago today, the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds after liftoff. It was January 28th, 1986, when this flight was supposed to have carried the first teacher in space, Christa McAuliffe. Thousands (and perhaps million) of children watch her speed towards space, when all of a sudden, tragedy struck. Today, 20 years after that horrible tragedy, we still remember it. Today is a day of rememberance to honor our seven fallen Challenger heroes.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...-51-L-T_75.jpg
The Space Shuttle Challenger explosion, 20 years ago today.

Yeah, I was only seven years old when that happened, but I still remember it pretty clearly. I do remember being confused, though, they had said a teacher was onboard and died, I assumed one of the teachers at my school.

If it wasn't for you, my (people) would be speaking Japanese and I wouldn't exist. I salute you all, brave soldiers!

Space is a dangerous buisness. You win some you lose some. It wasnt the last disaster, and there will be more.

It's sad that these brave people met a fate like that, but I take heart, because I know there are so many of us with the unquenchable thirst for exploration and adventure that there is an essentially limitless supply of people who are still willing to go up, despite the risks.

But we really do need something new. The SS has far outlived its intended lifespan, and we just saw the Columbia evidence as much.

Still, huzzah for those brave people who take the risk in the spirit of adventure!

Money makes the world go round. It is money which killed those people.

Yeah, it's so brave for people to take risks like that. It's good that we're honouring them in this thread. <3

Christa McAuliffe was the teacher in the seven member crew. That tragedy happened three years before my time (I was born in 1989). And it wasn't the last space disaster; Challenger's older sister, Columbia, burned up and disintegrated in 2003, 17 years after Challenger. Just as in Challenger, all seven Columbia astronauts also died. And the space shuttle is a very risky (and costly) vehicle. It poses a risk of one death for every 8 flights, and each mission costs $500 MILLION each!

Today is the day. We must remember them. They touched our lives. They wished to serve our country in our conquest of space, and they did.

For all that will come after.

yes. we honor them greatly....

Ad astra per aspera - semper exploro

"To the stars, despite adversity - always explore"

That is what NASA says in tribute to Challenger, Columbia, and Apollo 1. I also decided to modify a KH2 poem, and this is what I came up with, in tribute to the seven fallen Challenger heroes.

Going into space…
Without you…
To continue to reach for the stars…
And meet you in heaven.

20 years, come and gone…
20 years since your death…
A dream – a dream of you…
In a world without you…

The dream I see in this world…
Without you…
Is a torn dream – a never-ending nightmare…
From 20 years ago…
I wish I could un-do it…
With you…

In 1985, Barbara Morgan was chosen as a backup teacher to Christa McAuliffe. When she goes into space (she decided to become an astronaut), she would most likely be thinking along the same lines of this poem. She will be the first teacher in space, replacing McAuliffe, because she never made it to space (the shuttle was climbing towards space when it exploded). If any of the seven Challenger astronauts' children would become astronauts themselves, they would also be thinking along the same lines, although it would probably be around 30-40 years.

I've been to the Christa McAuliffe museum :D and yeah ti was sad but, a shuttle blew up a year or two ago on re-entry. Sad stuff.

Why just today? Why not everyday?

Designating "days" for "remembering" tragedies just reduces them to "historical events".

As for me, I'm so fed up with the aerospace and defense industry's callous pursuit of money and fame that I turned my back on it after just three years of working in it.

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Originally Posted by RSL

Yeah, I was only seven years old when that happened, but I still remember it pretty clearly. I do remember being confused, though, they had said a teacher was onboard and died, I assumed one of the teachers at my school.

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I was five but I don't remember it at all. I remember that it happened but nothing specific. I guess I was in kindergarten at the time.

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Originally Posted by I'm my own MILF

It's sad that these brave people met a fate like that, but I take heart, because I know there are so many of us with the unquenchable thirst for exploration and adventure that there is an essentially limitless supply of people who are still willing to go up, despite the risks.

But we really do need something new. The SS has far outlived its intended lifespan, and we just saw the Columbia evidence as much.

Still, huzzah for those brave people who take the risk in the spirit of adventure!

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Well said. I agree.

I'm actually watching a show on the History Channel about this. Pretty interesting stuff. I wasn't alive at the time, but I remember hearing about it on the news at the 10 year mark. Truly a sad event.

Four days before I was born.

Seven Columbia astronauts were killed cataclysmically in space catastrophe (including Christa McAuliffe) , they were buried in a coffin, they went to heaven with God. *sob*. Our memories remember seven Columbia Challenger heroes. :cry:

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Originally Posted by rikkupainegoofydonald

Seven Columbia astronauts were killed cataclysmically in space catastrophe (including Christa McAuliffe) , they were buried in a coffin, they went to heaven with God. *sob*. Our memories remember seven Columbia Challenger heroes. :cry:

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Christa McAuliffe was on Challenger, not Columbia. And Columbia was on February 1st, 2003, 17 years and 4 days after Challenger.

Man's never ending desire to be amoung the stars. Despite all our scientific knowledge of them there's still something primatively exoctic about them.

I wouldn't have been old enough to remember this, I was only 1.

But there's a film called "Koyanasqatsi"(its part of a trilogy the other two: Powannasqatsi and Noyanasqatsi) but in this film at the end the film photage is coupled with some music that reminds me of the depressing soundtrack from "Princess Vampire Myune."

Atleast I think it's the same photage and if it's not then it'd be equally as moving, though to be honest I have a hard time finding any emotional connection for a particular person the image itself is just a grotesque display of human ingenuiety and sense of organization coupled with the harsh reality of mortality and chaos.

And how does that relate to the Challenger tragedy?

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Originally Posted by Yamaneko

Four days before I was born.

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Coincidentally four days after I was born.

I was almost three, but I still don't remember it.

I wasn't even born until three years after the tragedy.

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Originally Posted by SuperMillionaire

And how does that relate to the Challenger tragedy?

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Why does it have to?

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Originally Posted by SuperMillionaire

And how does that relate to the Challenger tragedy?

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When I said "the film photage was coupled with music" I ment the photage from the Challanger Tragedy.

Because the director of the movie edited just a bunch of different things together filmed by other people.

So. Everything. Possibly.

Oh.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by RSL

Yeah, I was only seven years old when that happened, but I still remember it pretty clearly. I do remember being confused, though, they had said a teacher was onboard and died, I assumed one of the teachers at my school.

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What? You were one of Christa McAuliffe's students?

I was... about 3 years old at the time, but I can vaguely recollect hearing about this disaster. My family was hugely interested in the space programme, so we always paid attention to relevant news.

Space exploration is one of the few avenues of human endeavour that still gives me hope for the future...

No. I remember being confused and thinking that. They just kept saying a teacher was killed. I was pretty young you must remember.

What color were Christa McAuliffe's eyes?

Brown. Get it? Ahaha... what?

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Originally Posted by Doomgaze

What color were Christa McAuliffe's eyes?

Brown. Get it? Ahaha... what?

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Please, don't crack jokes on her. You shouldn't do that on a dead person (especially one we admired so much). Yes, her eyes are brown, but please, don't do that again.

I grew up about 2 hours from where the shuttle took off. It was a huge deal here. And when we lost Columbia too. I was only about three or four, but I remember all my preschool teachers showing on the TV and everyone was crying. When they explained to us that people died and some kids wouldn't have their Mommies or Daddies anymore, it made all of us cry...

This is for your insolence. I'll piss on whoever's grave I want.

Q: Did you know that Christa McAuliffe was blue eyed?
A: One blew left and one blew right.


Q: What were Christa McAuliffe's last words?
A: "What's this button do?"

Q: What were Christa McAuliffe's last words to her husband?
A: "You feed the kids - I'll feed the fish."

Q: What does NASA stand for?
A: Need Another Seven Astronauts

Q: Did you know that NASA has a new space drink?
A: Ocean Spray - It was their second choice because they couldn't
get 7-UP.

Q: What do Playtex tampon users and Christa McAuliffe have in common?
A: They both should have stayed on the pad.

Q: What does a sea lion, the space shuttle and Tylenol have in common?
A: They're all looking for a tight seal.

Q: How many people will fit in a Florida Volkswagen?
A: Four in the seats and seven in the ashtray.

Q: On future shuttle missions, why will one of the astronauts have to
be a naval officer?
A: So when they decide to use it as an experimental submarine, they'll
have a rated officer onboard.

Q: What do Christa McAuliffe and Donna Rice have in common.
A: They both went down on the challenger.

Q: Did you hear that they are sending up another teacher on the next
shuttle mission?
A: She's going to be a substitute.

Grrrrr...

That's not cool! :mad2: :mad2: :mad2: Have you no respect? For anything?

Yeah, exactly, that's right! Hey, do you know how I can reach the McAuliffe family?