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Remembering the Challenger
Jan. 28th, 2011 09:18 am25 years ago I was home and awake in the morning since I had rehearsal in the evening. Since I was up and around I decided to watch the launch of the Space Shuttle since the first civilian was going up in space. I put on CNN and sat back to watch.
It was pretty much a normal launch at the beginning. We heard the astronauts and Mission Control talking to each other like normal. We watched it go up and the camera changedThe count continued from Mission Control. We heard, “Go at throttle up.” And the reply, “Roger, go at throttle up.” Then something didn’t look right to me. There was a plume coming out of the cloud at an odd angle. There was a pause from Mission Control that went on a bit. Then we heard, “Major Malfunction. We have no downlink.” We waited while the pause seemed to stretch into hours where it was merely a minute or so and then we heard "We have a report from the Flight Dynamics Officer that the vehicle has exploded."
My stomach sank to my knees. I stayed glued to the television until I had to go to rehearsal. There was a pall at rehearsal as the nation mourned the loss of all on board.
There was plenty of discussion at the time as to what happened. As the facts came out we discovered that it was a fault in the O-rings in the rockets. It was an accident waiting to happen but it didn’t until the temperature fell below a certain point for a certain length of time. There was a lot of second guessing. But we picked ourselves up and continued to use the Space Shuttle.
Now the Space Shuttle is being decommissioned with no real replacement in place. We don’t seem to be shooting for the stars anymore or at least not with people involved which, I find sad. Our space program is slowly being dismantled which is a crying shame and I think is disrespect for those who did lose their lives for it. But that is another rant.
Today I remember that day and pray for those who lost their lives and their family and friends who have to live with their absence every day. We, as a nation, were never quite the same after the events of 25 years ago. We lost some of our innocence with that cloud in the sky.
I am grateful that I was home and did see these events unfold.
It was pretty much a normal launch at the beginning. We heard the astronauts and Mission Control talking to each other like normal. We watched it go up and the camera changedThe count continued from Mission Control. We heard, “Go at throttle up.” And the reply, “Roger, go at throttle up.” Then something didn’t look right to me. There was a plume coming out of the cloud at an odd angle. There was a pause from Mission Control that went on a bit. Then we heard, “Major Malfunction. We have no downlink.” We waited while the pause seemed to stretch into hours where it was merely a minute or so and then we heard "We have a report from the Flight Dynamics Officer that the vehicle has exploded."
My stomach sank to my knees. I stayed glued to the television until I had to go to rehearsal. There was a pall at rehearsal as the nation mourned the loss of all on board.
There was plenty of discussion at the time as to what happened. As the facts came out we discovered that it was a fault in the O-rings in the rockets. It was an accident waiting to happen but it didn’t until the temperature fell below a certain point for a certain length of time. There was a lot of second guessing. But we picked ourselves up and continued to use the Space Shuttle.
Now the Space Shuttle is being decommissioned with no real replacement in place. We don’t seem to be shooting for the stars anymore or at least not with people involved which, I find sad. Our space program is slowly being dismantled which is a crying shame and I think is disrespect for those who did lose their lives for it. But that is another rant.
Today I remember that day and pray for those who lost their lives and their family and friends who have to live with their absence every day. We, as a nation, were never quite the same after the events of 25 years ago. We lost some of our innocence with that cloud in the sky.
I am grateful that I was home and did see these events unfold.
