Remembering Challenger

Thirty-three years ago today, the space shuttle, Challenger, blasted off from its dock in Florida at Cape Canaveral.

Seventy-three seconds into its voyage, it exploded. All seven people on board died.

When this happened, I was 23 years old. I was driving down Interstate 581 on my way to my part-time job after taking a class at Virginia Western Community College. Since I was an avid fan of the space program, I always watched the launches and I remember being upset that I was missing this launch of Challenger, which was taking the first teacher into space. Since I couldn't see it on TV, I listened to the radio report of the event.

I nearly wrecked the car when I heard the horror in the radio announcer's voice as he cried, "It's breaking up, it's breaking up! Oh my God!"

I began crying, sobbing hard even as I trudged into the office. No one there was aware of the tragedy and I had to beg the attorney to turn on a TV so I could see news footage. I was appalled that no one else at my workplace seemed to share my horror and dismay, but I remember it as well as I do any other national tragedy.

This was the 25th mission for a space shuttle and I fear that by this time it had become "routine" in the minds of the public. We flew into space - big deal. We had stopped expecting catastrophe.

Nothing is routine about a space flight, though. It was, and still is, a big deal. I consider our efforts to take humanity off of earth and into the stars our greatest achievement and our loftiest of goals.

The two minutes of CNN footage of the shuttle blowing up is here; the news media missed the explosion and took too long to realize that something terrible had happened. I have hindsight on my side: I know when I see the smoke what exactly has happened. As the NASA spokesperson says, "obviously there was a major malfunction."

Whatever shrugs the space program had received up to this point disappeared quickly. This disaster was hard on the nation because Christa McAuliffe, the first teacher in space, was on board. Millions of children were watching when Challenger suddenly burst into a ball of smoke and flame.

I admire people who put their life on the line so that we might venture out into the great unknown. The space program, now defunded and derided by those who eschew knowledge and education in favor of fiscal prudence and safety, gave mankind many great innovations. It saddens me that we no longer aim for the stars. We only seem to see the dollar bills floating around at our feet. We no longer look up or to the future.

The space program fostered hopes and dreams. The work gave humanity a sense of common purpose as exploration and accomplishments took place time and time again. If we could go into space, we could do anything. Space exploration was a tremendous step forward and an example of what we could accomplish when we worked together.

It was a glorious time in our history, even when bad things such as the Challenger explosion occurred. We stood for something. We believed in science. We were civilized.

I salute all of those heroes who set off in search of something more than themselves. May we find that bravery once again in this country, which now seems to be a land of cowards, bullies, and bigots, not soul-searchers who would walk amongst the stars.