Today is the 5th Anniversary of the Columbia Disaster when we lost 7 brave astronauts who were minutes from landing at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. This is also a day after NASA paid tribute and remembers them and the other 10 astronauts who have perished in our quest for space. The crews of the Space Shuttle Challenger, January 28, 1986 and Apollo 1, January 27, 1967, who also were lost to tragedy. Such fine people working on behalf of science, exploration, discovery, and the pursuit of a dream.Columbia exploded and broke apart on re-entry into the atmosphere due to faulty heat shield tiles, damaged days before at thier launch, on February 1, 2003.
Columbia Crew:
Rick Husband, Col.,USAF
William McCool, Cdr.,USN
Michael P. Anderson, Ltc., USAF
Ilan Ramon, Col., IAF
Kalpana Chawla, Ph.D.
David Brown, M.D., Capt., USN
Laurel S. Clark, M.D., Cdr., USN
Challenger and her crew were killed when the O-rings failed 73 seconds after launch and exploded, on that cold January day back in 1986.
Challenger Crew:
Francis Scobee, USAF
Michael J. Smith, USN
Judith A. Resnik, Ph.D.
Ellison S. Onizuka, USAF
Ronald E. McNair, Ph.D.
Gregory B. Jarvis, USAF
Christa McAuliffe
The Apollo One crew were killed, January 27, 1967, in a fire while practicing for thier upcoming mission.
Apollo One Crew:
Virgil "Gus" Grissom, Ltc., USAF
Edward H. White, Ltc., USA
Roger B. Chaffee, Lt. Cmdr., USN
In the words of President Ronald Reagan, delivered to the Challenger families, "we will bid you goodbye, but we will never forget you."
2 comments:
I can't believe that was 5 years ago already!!!
Bradley
The Egel Nest
I was in 9th grade Biology watching the Challenger launch in '86 and until 9/11 that was the most poignant image I had in my memory banks. Thanks for the reminder.
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