Remembering fallen STS Astronauts

[Admin]

New January, new sad remembrance:

Rest in peace, crews of STS-51L (Jan 28, 1986) and STS-107 (Jan 16, 2003).

STS-51L perished 73s into the liftoff phase at throttle-up, on Jan 28, 1986. It was shown that a failed SRB O-Ring allowed a side-flame from the damaged SRB to create a chain of events that culminated into a total structural failure and eventual disintegration of the Space Shuttle.

STS-107 disintegrated during re-entry on Feb 1, 2003 due to what has been shown in the insuing post-mission investigation, as damaged/missing thermal tiles which led to the overheating of the Left Main Gear well, and eventual loss of structural integrity and disintegration at an altitude of 207,000' over New Mexico, USA.

/Admin

[Spaceguy5]

"The crew of the space shuttle Challenger honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives. We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and 'slipped the surly bonds of earth' to 'touch the face of God.'"

- Ronald Reagan

"In an age when space flight has come to seem almost routine, it is easy to overlook the dangers of travel by rocket, and the difficulties of navigating the fierce outer atmosphere of the Earth. These astronauts knew the dangers, and they faced them willingly, knowing they had a high and noble purpose in life. Because of their courage, and daring, and idealism, we will miss them all the more."

- George W. Bush

Very sad indeed. I can still vividly remember the morning of Feb 1st. I was going to wake up and watch the landing, but slept through it and instead woke up to my sister yelling "The space shuttle blew up!" which I immediately didn't believe.

Yesterday I wrote a thousand-word memorial to Challenger for my college's newspaper, I'm still waiting today to see how he laid it out on the page. I wonder if they'll let me do one for Columbia too next week.

[spaceboy7441]

Not STS but still most definitely deserve mention is the crew of Apollo 1 who made the ultimate sacrifice without even having a real launch attempt.

[Admin]

Not STS but still most definitely deserve mention is the crew of Apollo 1 who made the ultimate sacrifice without even having a real launch attempt.

I agree.

I did think of this but decided to stick to STS only for the sake of being consistent. That's why I named the thread "fallen STS astronauts" not "fallen NASA astronauts", which sadly, should've included many more beyond the Apollo 1 and STS...

/Admin

[spaceboy7441]

Yeah I know where you're coming from I just feel It should be an open remembrance of fallen NASA astronauts most notable STS-107, STS-51L, and Apollo 1. Just my 2 cents 

[kbkline]

The most quite place at KSC is the memorial 'garden'..... Gives me chills every time I go. Kind-of weird how both shuttles failed in January......

[kbkline]

It gives me chills reading other people's stories about where they were and what they were doing on that day. I was in high school and in-between classes someone came running to me and was telling me that it had just exploded. One kid thought it was funny (that's why he was and still is a loser to this day) I can remember going home and turning on the TV and watching all day. I just couldn't believe it..... 

[Admin]

STS-51L - in front of the TV: I couldn't believe the sight of the explosion, so soon into liftoff. At that moment I knew that the STS program will never be the same. As a matter of fact, I was sure that that was the end of the STS program.

STS-107 - unfortunately, I was again in front of the TV, waiting for it to land, and witnessing the initial uncertainty which was replaced by the sad realization that Columbia was gone.

/Admin

[EdW]

I remember seeing the Challenger Disaster on TV when i was about 7 years old, truely a tragedy for all of humanity and a sobering lesson that we are indeed still only dipping a toe into the vast ocean of space above us . .  the example of all the brave men and women who have gone before (and continue to push our boundaries of exploration) should rightly be held as an inspiration to ALL mankind.

May we remember them all . . always.

[bradleyjs]

I was at Patrick AFB, FL on the flight line which is @12 miles (as the crow-flies) from KSC and saw the lift-off and explosion LIVE with my MK-1 Eyeballs... Stood there for 45 mins and watched the pieces fall into the ocean... Couldn't believe it...

I was very saddened that day ... can't believe it was 25 years ago today... My how time passes so quickly.

Jeff

[Tempest]

I just got off the plane and was in San Francisco for some job training. Threw myself on the bed in my hotel and turned on the news. There was a story about the Challenger on the news the day before the disaster due to a postponement of the launch

Now here's the weird part-I for the life of me can't remember how I found out that next  morning where or when I heard of the disaster. But what I clearly remember because I just got this dreadful feeling -really bad feeling was the news I saw the day before when I flipped on the news when I arrived in the city. I remember for some technical reason they couldn't get the astronauts out of the Shuttle because something was wrong with Challenger's hatch so they had to finally use some silly low tech screw driver to open the hatch.  There was some delay opening that hatch.

I thought that was  really dumb and then I got this feeling of dread. I remember that moment quite clearly.