January 28th, 1986.
After spending almost a month in the far reaches of Alberta's North on the oil rigs, I was finally driving out to Edmonton with another rig worker. We chatted about many things as one does on such a long trip. One early topic was the pending launch of Challenger. To this day, the words I uttered still haunt me in ways. "They (NASA) are putting them up so often, at some point, they are going to have a major problem."
Not an hour later... the radio shattered our conversation with the news that Challenger had exploded 73 seconds after liftoff.
Today marks the 20th Anniversary of that tragic event. Many on these boards will have no memories of it, yet those longer in the tooth will undoubtedly remember exactly where they were when it happened or when they first heard about it.
Ronald Reagan was to give his State of the Union address later that day. Obviously, that never happened. But later, one of his most memorable lines was made when he addressed not only his nation, but the world.
"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."
As I sit here writing this, the memories and emotions of those events flood back upon me. I wanted to share my experience for those that are too young to remember, and those that might have their own memories to share.
Several stories commemorate this event. I encourage you to read them all.
From the BBC, which has video of the tragedy, as well as Reagan's address.
Link
From aljazeera....
Link
From Swissinfo, including an interview with a former astronaut...
Link
From the Seattle Times...
Link
And there are obviously many more.
Today, remember those fallen in order to advance the human race. They were admirable in life, and legendary in death.