Oh... man...

[lithera]

I don't know about you guys but I don't know if I'll ever really get over the Challenger disaster.

.... I think this is part of why I freak out when they interupt TV. Some part of me is linked back to this.

Comments

[deqlan.livejournal.com]

For some reason, I have no clear memory of this event. I know it happened, but I can't remember where I was when it happened, or when the first time I heard about it was.

I'm that way with a lot of disasters.

[branwynelf.livejournal.com]

I was in high school when it happened, taking a final. The principal interrupted finals to announce it and asked everyone to put down their pencils for a minute of silence.

The second explosion affected me more - probably because it was too much to have it happen once, twice was just ... unreal. You know?

[pullthestars.livejournal.com]

I very specifically remember what happened... we spent the lunch hour talking about it, and wondering if it was sabotage by the Russians (hey, it was the 80's, and the Cold War :). I spilled my cup o'noodles all over myself during that lunch. I wish that I had kept my folder of newspaper clippings about the launch and subsequent explosion.

[cleverusername2.livejournal.com]

It's memorable, very much so, but I noticed that This crash (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/28/newsid_2506000/2506207.stm) occured on the same day and seems much more scary, if less public.

[fireballof3.livejournal.com]

*twitch*

That was TODAY? Wow.....

Long time ago....

I actually remember this quote being said:
He (Pres. Regan) said: "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."

Regan was an amazing speaker.

wow.

[pullthestars.livejournal.com]

you do know the poem that comes from, right?

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew -
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand and touched the face of God.

John Gillespie Magee, Jr.

[fireballof3.livejournal.com]

I did not, actually.

Thank you.

Maybe I Watch too much Star Trek But. . .

[sordidatus.livejournal.com]

I was in Jr High when this happened and when I was first told about the tragedy is by a couple of guys who were trying to tease and get me upset. My first reaction was denial. Decades later when I was stationed at Warner Robins AFB in Georgia I went to the dining hall to get breakfast on Saturday afternoon and learned of the Columbia disaster.

Space travel has always been a risky business but it is absolutely vital to the future of lifekind. The one thing about our future that is certain is that sooner or later our sun is going to go nova and annihilate the Earth. When that happens it will erase Earth lifekind’s voice from (if you will forgive the Carl Sagan reference) the cosmic fugue. All of the things that make Earth special; panda bears, Coca Cola, Homer, Shakespeare, Lao Tzu, Mayan pyramids, Star Trek, The Book of Five Rings, Democracy, ants, iguana lizards, dijeridos, peanuts, all of the things unique to Earth will be gone. Forever unknown to the greater galactic community, if there is one. Unless we go to the stars.

This is a dream that a lot of us share. And we benefit from this dream in many subtle ways. I also think that is a way of progressing away from a lot of the everyday evils that make life on Earth difficult and make Earth and Humans not so special. I also believe that as long as we keep this dream alive that Earth might have a future and that this future demands of use to take good care of its past, which is our present.

There are going to be tragedies and setbacks along the way. The shuttle program is a dysfunctional program that is dangerous and starting to show its age. Right now, we lack the technology to construct and operate the shuttle’s replacement design. But we can’t give up.

[jeditigger.livejournal.com]

In my lifetime (that I can recall), I think this was the saddest single day in our nation until 9/11. We were absolutely engulfed with grief.