Posts Tagged ‘challenger’

Goodbye to the Space Shuttles


09 Jul

Friday marked the end of an era- the last launch of a space shuttle. I grew up watching shuttle launches on the Today Show while my family ate breakfast. I grew up in the era of Space Camp (the movie) and the Challenger explosion. These are important memories in my childhood, and it saddens me that similar new memories are not being made.

NASA still has plans. There is still the international space station, and we are getting closer every year to civilian space flights. But there will be no more space shuttles, at least not for the foreseeable future.

Challenger: My First Memory of Tragedy


28 Jan

I remember seeing the Challenger explode on TV at home, the whole family watching it on the Today show as we ate breakfast, like we watched all shuttle launches. I was 10.

It happened too late in the day for that memory to be fact. But I remember the important parts, the shock and the sadness, the disbelief, and gratefulness that our teacher hadn’t been chosen, the bad jokes that came perhaps too soon.

My father recorded the news coverage. He still has VHS tapes of the Challenger exploding. 25 years later, I don’t think I could watch without crying.

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