Remembering Challenger

Twenty-five years ago today, the Space Shuttle Challenger came apart and exploded 73 seconds after launch, raining the ocean in a shower of debris, taking from us the lives of 7 courageous men and women: Commander Francis R. Scobee, Pilot Michael J. Smith, Mission Specialist Judith A. Resnik, Mission Specialist Ellison S. Onizuka, Mission Specialist Ronald E. McNair, Payload Specialist Gregory B. Jarvis, and Teacher in Space Christa Corrigan McAuliffe. This tragedy dealt a major blow to the false perception that manned space travel could be reduced to anything routine and safe. It never was "safe." But pushing the boundaries of the final frontier doesn't have to be safe to be worthy and worth doing.

The depth of my memories of that day have faded over time. I was in an 9th grade English class on that cold January morning (like it is anything but cold in North Dakota in January). Word filtered quickly down the hall, and we ran to one of the few television sets on top of a push cart to try to tune in to the NBC broadcast. Other than watching the available footage over and over, marvelling darkly at the understatement of the moment ("we have experienced a major malfunction"), most of that day has been lost to the recesses of my mind. I do remember President Reagan's address from the Oval Office, but that memory has been augmented by the wonders of YouTube. I remember the loss of Columbia much more clearly, but of course that wasn't all that long ago.

My hopes of getting my family down to a launch have pretty much been retired, as the final schedule just doesn't seem to work with our calendar. STS-133 (Discovery) is preparing to roll out to the pad for the final time, to launch February 24. STS-134 (Endeavour) launches for the last time April 19. Finally, in June, the launch of STS-135 (Atlantis) will bring the space shuttle era to a close, and quite likely the end of manned space flight for the foreseeable future.

Where NASA goes from here is still to be determined. One president casts a vision and the next cancels it. In an age of mounting national debt and increasingly polarized politics, USA manned space flight will stay grounded as we watch China and perhaps India pursue the moon. Without at least some latitude for privatization and entrepreneurship, we may spend our days looking back at the past while others pursue the future. Manned space flight is a luxury that has to give way to the burden of our debt and entitlements.

For the crew of STS-51-L, I raise the proverbial glass to you in memory and thanks. "We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for the journey and waved goodbye and 'slipped the surly bonds of earth' to 'touch the face of God.'"