NASA's Day of Remembrance

[saildog]

Today is the 45th Anniversary of the Apollo 1 fire. Tomorrow is the 25th Anniversary of the Challenger Explosion and Tuesday will mark the 8th Anniversary of the loss of Columbia and her crew. (I think the article has the date wrong...it was 2003 (not 2004 as stated in the article).

NASAs Day of Remembrance for Apollo 1, Challenger and Columbia - Yahoo! News

Here's to those who gave their lives for Space Exploration.

God Bless them and their family and friends.

Apollo 1 Crew: Command Pilot Virgil "Gus" Grissom, Senior Pilot Edward H. White, Pilot Roger B. Chaffee

Challenger STS-51-L Crew: Commander Francis "Dick" Scobee, Pilot Michael J. Smith, Mission Specialist 1 Ellison Onizuka, Mission Specialist 2 Judith Resnik, Mission Specialist 3 Ronald McNair, Payload Specialist 1 Sharon Christa McAuliffe, Payload Specialist 2 Gregory Jarvis

Columbia STS-107 Crew: Commander Rick D. Husband, Pilot William C. McCool, Mission Specialist 1 David M. Brown, Mission Specialist 2 Kalpana Chawla, Payload Commander Michael P. Anderson, Mission Specialist 4 Laurel B. Clark, Payload Specialist 1 Ilan Ramon (Israel)

[Brazoo]

Great post!

[The Toyroom]

Wow...25 years for the Challenger...I remember watching that when it happened that morning...

[Hector]

Wow...25 years for the Challenger...I remember watching that when it happened that morning...

Holy smokes...time does fly.

I was crashing at a friend's house after a party...was too drunk to drive...then we all woke up...and checked out the horrific news on TV...that fixed my hangover really quick.

Well...guess what...that same friend was just with me drinking a couple of beers just last week...we still hang out...he's still my best friend.

25 years...holy ****.

Man...life is so short...and fragile.

RIP for those brave men and women...takes a lot of guts to ride atop of what basically is a controlled missile explosion...yikes.

Also...yes...Apollo 1...another tragic event...as well as the last one...Columbia.

Lots of sadness in the space program...but also America at its best.

[Hector]

Last few minutes of Columbia during re-entry...don't worry...there's no sudden horrific scenes...the camera just shuts down before all hell brakes loose...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45r6Ow1tQlM

[Adam West]

The Challenger explosion was one of the events I mentioned watching "live" at least on tv. I remember being home sick from school that day and I know it seems pretty ludicrous today but it wasn't unusual for me to set my alarm clock and wake up late at night or early morning to watch something like a space shuttle launch. I still remember the announcers were not sure what happened when it exploded and initially just presumed it was a minor issue thinking the initial launching rockets had caught fire after they had released from the main rocket.

[jds1911a1]

I never put together the calendar date closeness of the 3 tragedies. I wasn't born when Gus died but, I still remember the exitement when they wheeled the TV into class and the shock when it blew, and turning on the TV to watch the Columbia landing with my kids and as soon as I saw the debris I turned it off before the commenator started talking. I didn't want them to remember it the way I did Challenger

[HardyGirl]

RIP to those brave men and women who went where no one had gone before and never came back.

[UnderdogDJLSW]

RIP. Brave folks indeed.

[saildog]

Just noticed I dinged the author of that article for getting the Columbia date wrong when I, myself, stated that yesterday was the "45th Anniversary of the Apollo 1 Fire".

Faulty math on my part...it was the 44th Anniversary.

[johnmiic]

I remember they sent us home from school that day and it was really cold! Way below freezing here in NY.