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Posted by: Stu Jan 28 2008, 10:23 AM

Hard to believe, I know, but today marks the 22nd anniversary of the loss of CHALLENGER. While many people here will have their own very personal memories of that godawful day... I know I do... it strikes me that that's now so long ago that many of our younger members won't remember it, or weren't even born then, so anyone wanting to learn more about what happened should go here:

http://history.nasa.gov/sts51l.html

Posted by: djellison Jan 28 2008, 11:05 AM

It's a fairly black couple of weeks really, in terms of anniversaries.

Such is the price of exploration, and the cost of heroes. The world is a poorer place without them.

Doug

Posted by: nprev Jan 28 2008, 01:58 PM

Very true, and well said.

At the same time, we wouldn't even have a world without them...we would have been anonymous three-million year old fossils, never widespread, buried under some forgotten African plain (not that the continent would have ever had a name...)

To explore is the pinnacle of what it is to be, to exist as a living, thinking, feeling being; to die doing so is tragic, but also noble in the purest sense of the word. Peace to the crew of the Challenger and their loved ones.

Posted by: Phil Stooke Jan 28 2008, 04:42 PM

I can't listen to Anne Lister's beautiful song "Icarus" - especially as recorded by Martin Simpson - without thinking of Challenger. It fits so perfectly, and always brings tears to my eyes.

"Now some are born to fly high
And some are born to follow
Some are born to touch the sky
While some walk in the hollow
And as I watched your body fall
I knew that really you had won
For your grave was not the earth
But the reflection of the sun"

Phil

Posted by: DDAVIS Jan 29 2008, 12:42 AM

>but today marks the 22nd anniversary of the loss of CHALLENGER. While many people here will have their own very personal memories of that godawful day...



Here are mine:

http://www.donaldedavis.com/STSo25/ENDOFDREAM.html

The introductory quote in the front of issues of Icarus from 'Stars and Atoms' by Sir Arthur Eddington is well worth reading on this day.

Don

Posted by: dvandorn Jan 29 2008, 04:40 AM

That was a very disturbing day for me. One of the few extremely disturbing days I've had in my life.

What disturbs me more, though, is the fact that the Challenger disaster occurred only 19 years after the Apollo Fire, only 16.5 years after Apollo 11, and only 13 years after Apollo 17.

And in the 22 years since, not one single human being has validated the sacrifice of the Challenger crew by so much as venturing out of low Earth orbit.

To me, that's far more disturbing... *sigh*...

-the other Doug

Posted by: centsworth_II Jan 29 2008, 05:19 AM

The shuttle program is all about low Earth orbit. Why would validation
come from doing something else entirely? The validation came in continuing
on and building the space station, unfortunately not without a second disaster.

Posted by: Stu Jan 29 2008, 06:36 AM

Know that quote well Don, and the person behind it; Sir A was born in Kendal, where I live, and I run the astronomical society named in his honour. His collaboration with Einstein is going to be dramatised by the BBC in a one off drama special later this year. It's in partnership with HBO so no doubt you'll get to see it there too.