It was 22 years ago today that the space shuttle
Challenger disintegrated shortly after liftoff, killing all 7 astronauts onboard.
One of the few times I can look back on and recall exactly what I was doing when I heard the news. I was in 7'th grade. We were getting ready to start class when our teacher got a call from the office. Her face was grim as she turned and said "I have some bad news." When she broke the news to us, those of us who actually knew what she was talking about sat in stunned silence while the rest of the class shrugged their collective shoulders. She turned on the radio and we sat, listening to the announcers repeat the unimaginable...that the space shuttle had literally torn itself to pieces. As the day progressed, we heard less and less. The teachers steered us back into our normal routines, but my thoughts were with the group who would be called "The
Challenger 7". Rushing home, I could not believe my eyes as the footage burned itself into my memory. To this day I still remember their names, their faces. Dick Scobee, Michael Smith, Ellison Onizuka, Judy Resnik, Ron McNair, Greg Jarvis and of course the most famous of the group, Christa McAuliffe, who would have been the first teacher to fly into space.
The
Challenger was the second of five shuttles. Preceded by the class leading
Columbia, succeeded by the
Discovery,
Atlantis, and
Endeavour. There was actually a shuttle built prior to the
Columbia, named
Enterprise, but she never flew an actual spaceflight and was used as a test shuttle for landings.
Since the
Columbia re-entry disintegration, there are only three remaining space-worthy shuttles. The question has been raised whether to retire the trio as planned. To say the shuttle fleet is aging is not quite accurate.
Discovery and
Atlantis had already flown into space at least once by the time of the
Challenger disaster.
Endeavour was built to replace
Challenger and did not fly for several more years, but even the "baby" of the shuttle fleet is going on 17 years old. Currently the fleet is scheduled to phase out by 2010, but with no replacement on the horizon, will the United States abandon manned spaceflight?
With the economy in dire straits, job losses widening, and faith in the government flagging, certainly there is reason to suspend flights or retire the fleet as planned. I hope I am not alone when I say that we must continue to fly. Exploration, the need for knowledge and the quest to discover have been hallmarks of mankind for as long as humans have walked the Earth. To deny those is to shutter sensations even a baby can understand and grasp. We must continue to "boldly go where no man has gone before" and not merely to satisfy our curiosity but to enable us to learn, grow and expand our fields of understanding.
I cannot speak for the
Challenger 7, but I believe they would feel the same. I believe they felt that way the cold Florida morning as they walked unaware from the launch platform into their solemn place in history.
We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for the journey and waved goodbye and "slipped the surly bonds of earth" to "touch the face of God." - Ronald Reagan
Top (l-r): Ellison Onizuka, Christa McAuliffe, Greg Jarvis, Judy Resnik
Bottom (l-r): Michael Smith, Dick Scobee, Ron McNair
