On January 27, 1967, tragedy struck the Apollo program when a flash fire occurred in command module 012 during a launch pad test of the Apollo/Saturn space vehicle being prepared for the first piloted flight, the AS-204 mission. Three astronauts, Lt. Col. Virgil I. Grissom, a veteran of Mercury and Gemini missions; Lt. Col. Edward H. White, the astronaut who had performed the first United States extravehicular activity during the Gemini program; and Roger B. Chaffee, an astronaut preparing for his first space flight, died in this tragic accident.
It’s also worth noting a small piece of irony: Jan 28th was the 21st anniversary of the Challenger disaster.
I read over the weekend that the teacher who was next in line to Christee on the Challenger, and wold have taken her place if Christee got sick, is now preparing to take a flight on an upcoming shuttle flight.
Always at the beginning, there are the few who reach for the impossible, who dare to believe the unimaginable, who dare to dream the impossible.
Always at the beginning, there are a few heroes whose high and noble sacrifice enable the rest of us to dare to share their dream.
We stand on their shoulders and look at the stars, and find that these heroes were very tall indeed, for from this vantage the stars seem so much closer than they once did.
The heroes are not forgotten, and neither is their dream.
If by death the rest of humanity learns to dream a dream of hope, then neither that life nor that death were in vain.
I can remember coming home from the shops that day and my Father, rest his soul, dragging me into the front room to see what was on the TV. He was nearly speechless, not to mention looking pretty pale, and then I saw the news about the Challenger.
I will admit that when I saw Tylers post I thought..“21 years..no way”.
Gee, I remember the fire. Thinking how they died so ironic.
And, 21 years? I was sewing on my annual January quilt with the TV on , watching the launch. (I could do stuff like that back in the days when I did not have any job other than “mom”. I did not get a lot done on that quilt that day. Surely it’s not been that long…
They passed, but the spirit of exploration and knowledge which drove them to sacrifice all must live on. As long as we continue their work their deaths have meaning.
When the Apollo I crew died we discovered the fault that led to their deaths. When the Challenger exploded due to a failure in the solid rocket booster’s o-rings, killing all on board, we learned. Their deaths are no less tragic because of this, but we must remember the lessons taught so that others may not meet the same end.
Gee it’s refreshing to be among a group that doesn’t feel like we’re wasting money on the space program that could be better spent in jockeying for control of the world’s dwindling fossil fuel resources!
I can remember being in elementary school (I was about seven at the time) when the Challenger disaster happened. We were following the Teacher in Space thing as part of a unit on space we were doing at our school, so we were watching the launch on CNN (at least I’m pretty sure it was CNN, that’s what stands out in my mind).
I remember being very shaken by what I saw, as were other students.
