Thirty years ago to the day, 28 January 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger (OV-099) exploded during launch, killing all seven of her crew: Francis R. "Dick" Scobee, commander; Michael Smith, pilot; Ellison Onizuka, mission specialist; Judith Resnik, mission specialist; Ronald McNair, mission specialist; Gregory Jarvis, payload specialist; & Christa McAuliffe, payload specialist. The fateful flight, STS-51-L, was to deploy a communications satellite, conduct observations of the then-closely approaching Halley's Comet, & broadcast classroom lessons by Mrs. McAuliffe, the first astronaut from the Teacher in Space Project. Additionally, Dr. McNair, a saxophonist as well as a physicist, was to record a solo for inclusion on an album after the crew's return to Earth.
I was watching the launch, & thus the fiery destruction, of the Challenger live on television, from the library of my school, McGrath Elementary. I was in the first grade; I was six years old, the same age my oldest nephew & niece are now. This was not an everyday occurrence at McGrath. Space Shuttle launches had come to be seen as routine by the mid-'80s (the name, Space Shuttle, surely contributed to this perception); the previous flight, STS-61-C flown by the crew of the Space Shuttle Columbia, had landed just ten days before the disaster, on 18 January '86. No, the hubbub about the Challenger launch was Christa McAuliffe, the Teacher in Space. This was exactly what the Teacher in Space Project was supposed to do, to draw students' attention & inspire interest in what we now call S.T.E.M., the fields of science, technology, engineering, & mathematics. I do not remember the Challenger disaster being particularly traumatic, I was too young to really understand what had happened. The explosion was horrific, especially as it was played over & over again on T.V. for weeks afterward, but my happy little childhood bubble was not otherwise burst. Elsewhere, those mature enough to comprehend the tragedy translated their sadness into resolve that the deaths would not be in vain—that the manned exploration of outer space would continue—& memorialized the valiant men & women of the Challenger. The motion picture Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, released in the summer of '86, was dedicated to Scobee, Smith, Onizuka, Resnik, McNair, Jarvis, & McAuliffe.
The Space Shuttle Challenger was destroyed by the explosive failure of a Solid Rocket Booster seventy-three seconds after lift-off, resulting in the deaths of her crew of seven, thirty years ago today.
The Rebel Black Dot Song of the Day
Guster, "Rocketship" from Goldfly (The Last Angry Man)
Commentary: "Rocketship" isn't really about spaceflight, but the haunting tone strikes your humble narrator as befitting the occasion.
"I'm off on a rocketship,
Prepare for somethin' new,
I'm off on a rocketship,
Ecstatic with the view,
I am scared of the things upcomin'
And I want for the things I don't have,
Cannot stand to be one of many,
I'm not what they are…"
Commentary: This last graphic might be five years out of date, but the poignant message is timeless.
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