30th Anniversary of Space Shuttle Challenger loss.

[Commander Wallace]

It was 30 years ago today on a bright, Sunny morning that the space shuttle challenger lifted off with 7 astronauts. The crew consisted of Michael Smith, Dick Scobee, Judith Resnik, Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Gregory Jarvis and teacher Crista McAuliffe.

http://www.nola.com/science/index.ss...anniversa.html

73 seconds into that trip, the auxiliary fuel tank exploded taking challenger with it. The familes of the astronauts were watching the takeoff and horrified at the loss of their loved ones.

The U.S space program ground to a halt for 32 months while engineers grappled with the problems after it was revealed engineers connected with Challenger and the rocket booster assemblies warned the extreme cold could severely affect the rubber O rings between the joints of the external booster rockets. Many felt the loss of Challenger and her crew was criminal.

The expensive loss of the shuttle was difficult to comprehend. What was even worse was the loss of the brave astronauts. They were the absolute cream of the crop in their respective fields. Their loss was irreplaceable on a professional basis. On a human side, there are no words to adequately describe the absolutely horrible and tragic loss of their lives.

Then president Ronald Reagan was scheduled to make a State of the Union address but instead sought to console a grieving nation. Many had taken for granted the nature and routine of Space travel. The Challenger disaster revealed it was anything but routine. The Challenger loss demonstrated the bravery of those in the space program and the human costs of space exploration.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/60-minut...nger-mistakes/

( CBS 60 minutes interview by Leslie Stahl on the Challenger and an interview with the respective familes of the crew )


May this crew rest in peace and may their familes also know peace in their lives and be secure in the knowledge that the sacrifices of their loved ones lost on Challenger will never be forgotten..

[Eichhörnchen]

The detachment of watching this on TV made it seem unreal... just as was the case with 9/11

[AVGWarhawk]

I remember the day it happened. I just finished a class at the University of MD. As I entered the Student Union I had noticed a lot of girls crying as they watched the TV's that were mounted on the walls. After watching I understood why. It was a horrible day.

[Mike Abberton]

I grew up in southern New Hampshire (Christa McAuliffe was from Concord, NH) and the flight was a really big deal. I was in High School at the time, and I remember hearing between classes a student say the Space Shuttle blew up. I thought he was crazy, until I got to my next class. They had a TV set up there, and we all watched stunned for that entire class period to the news coverage.

[mako88sb]

Hard to believe it's been 30 years already. I was looking over some blueprints with a draftsman and heard on his radio the breaking news. I went into the main office and told everybody about it. One guy just laughed as he put his walk-man headphones on. He thought I was joking but his face transformed instantly when he heard it as well.

[Rockin Robbins]

A friend of mine worked at KSC on the shuttle. He was one of those who processed the SRBs after they returned from the water, bashing them round again, cleaning them out, putting new propellant in the segments, rejoining the segments and readying them for flight.

I stood in my business' parking lot and watched the flight naked eye and wondered about the three separate plumes which clearly indicated solid rocket boosters had detached from the main launch vehicle. It was 40 miles away so no explosions were heard.

I'll never forget as he sat beside me watching a replay of the explosion carefully a couple of times before standing up, pointing at the TV set and shouting "IT WASN'T OUR SRBs! IT WASN'T OUR SRB's!"

Oops......