20 years ago...

20 years ago I was 8 years old...so that puts me in 2nd grade ish, right? I don't specifically remember watching the launch and subsequent explosion of the Challenger but I do remember the Punky Brewster special they did to help kids my age understand what had happened. I remember that pretty clearly. Throughout my life I have had this weird emotional connection to the Challenger diaster. I don't know why. I have just always "felt" for it.

In high school, we were required to write a research paper for graduation. I chose to focus on NASA's errors in relationship to the two Apollo accidents (1 and 13) and Challenger. What I learned, angered me. Did you know that the night prior to the scheduled launch, individuals of the mechanic and engineering crew warned administration that it was too cold to safely launch the shuttle, that at air temperatures that low the rubber O-rings on the shuttle could not be guaranteed? Did you know, that administration (including some Presidential level officials) decided to launch anyway, greatly swayed by the press coverage of the launch due to the long anticipated "first teacher in space"? I have seen several specials on various anniversaries of the launch that interviewed officials that tried to stop the launch, I have read all the Senate investigation reports that are public record.

My freshman year of college, I used the topic of the diasaster as my first speech in Communications 101...I opened with the names of the crew and nearly choked up. I also got the chance to visit the memorial to the crew in Washington DC. Cried there too. Never have understood why it bothered me so much. I guess for those of us my age, the Challenger was sort of our "JFK" moment. Ask any of us in our late 20's/early 30's we can tell you wehre we were or what we were doing when the Challenger exploded in the sky.

Since then there have been a few other "moments". The OJ car chase and verdict come to mind, Oklahoma City, the start of the Gulf War, 9-11. What one's do you remember?

Families of Challenger crew observe 20th anniversary of disaster
By The Associated Press - 01/29/06
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — The widow of Challenger’s commander laid a wreath of roses and carnations at a memorial honoring fallen astronauts Saturday, the 20th anniversary of the day the space shuttle lifted off from a launch pad a few miles away and blew apart 73 seconds later.

June Scobee Rodgers, whose husband Dick Scobee was the shuttle’s commander, recalled waiting for the launch that chilly morning with other family members of the crew, including 12 children.Seven astronauts died in the explosion, and the images of the shuttle bursting apart were replayed over and over to a shocked nation.

On Saturday, 250 people joined a ceremony at Kennedy Space Center to honor Scobee, pilot Mike Smith, astronauts Ellison Onizuka, Judy Resnik, Ron McNair and Greg Jarvis, and Christa McAuliffe, who was supposed to be the first teacher in space.Rodgers, along with NASA associate administrator Bill Gerstenmaier, laid the wreath at the base of the Space Mirror Memorial, a tall granite-finished wall engraved with the names of the Challenger astronauts, the seven astronauts killed when space shuttle Columbia disintegrated over Texas in 2003 and the three Apollo 1 astronauts killed in a fire during a 1967 launch pad test.