35th anniversary of the loss of the Space Shuttle Challenger

[Commander Wallace]

Originally Posted by Dmitry Markov

I was 6 years old and we were living in a small town in a western part of Russia - and I remember we were watching evening news on TV when they showed Challenger disaster. At those times we, Soviet kids, were keen on space exploration - lots of magazines, books, even tabletop games - and for me as a little kid watching such a tragedy was a deep impact. They've told about Christa McAuliffe being a teacher and that only worsened things for my heart 'cause you know when you are six or seven - a teacher is a figure like a parent... So yes - that's something I would definitely remember (( Personally, I don't think about crews of Soyuz-1, Soyuz-11, Apollo-1, Challenger and Columbia as of Americans or Russians, but rather as of ambassadors of humankind into space.

This was a very touching tribute to the Challenger crew. Certainly, both the U.S and Russia have seen their share of heartbreaking disasters in the space program as we all collectively mourned their tragic loses. As kids in the U.S, we also were very much into space exploration. As we all learned, the more we wanted. Kids are very much like sponges in that we all " soaked " up everything around us.

I never realized that the disasters suffered by the U.S space program had such a profound effect around the world including the former Soviet Union. Then again, why wouldn't they. You're right, we are ambassadors of mankind in space. With the vast brain trust of not only the U.S and Russia but other scientific minded countries around the world, there is no telling how far we can push our boundaries of scientific knowledge and understanding as we advance into space.