News Challenger - 25 years since the last flight

[SiberianTiger]

Remembered forever...

 

[indonesianorbinaut]

 

[IronRain]

Humanity's heroes

 

[ryan]

No matter how many times i see that i still get chills, aswell when i hear the last call out from the commander.
May they rest in peace.

 

[IronRain]

No matter how many times i see that i still get chills, aswell when i hear the last call out from the commander.
May they rest in peace.

Yeah me too. I always try to avoid those video's, I just don't want to see them anymore

 

[Fabri91]

Yeah me too. I always try to avoid those video's, I just don't want to see them anymore

Same, here, I avoid to see that as possible...

 

[Urwumpe]

No problem with the videos. I have seen them so often, the horror is gone.

 

[rocketdued]

remembering the challenger.

even though i was only four months old when doom struck the challenger. id still like to honor the crew of it for what they did. may we always remember the crew of the challenger for ther bravery and dedication.

 

[PhantomCruiser]

I agree. I was a senior in high school, on my way to my co-op job when I heard the news on the radio.

 

[rocketdued]

remembering the challenger.

i don't remember what i was doing. i was only a year old. that and it was 25 years ago. :lol: i have trouble remembering 25 minutes ago let alone 25 years:lol:

 

[Mantis]

I was in 8th grade and we were watching the launch live on television. As someone who had followed the shuttle since the very first launch, I knew immediately that something terrible and devastating had occurred as soon as it happened. I remember the voice-over from the NASA official who was narrating the events. It had to be the understatement of the century when he said "Flight controllers are looking very carefully at the situation, obviosuly a major malfunction."

 

[Mantis]

No problem with the videos. I have seen them so often, the horror is gone.

Same here. It's easier now to distance yourself from the horror of it and look at it from a more forensic point of view. I was watching a National Geographic documentary on the Challenger disaster in which they used enhanced imagery and computer animation to break the disaster down milsecond by milisecond. It was quite fascinating especially the way that the were able to use technology to "strip away" the gas cloud and show exactly what happened to the orbiter and how it broke apart. Sad but none the less interesting.

 

[rocketdued]

remembering the challenger.

yeah i remember hearing that on the history channel. and i thought are you serious?? yeah somethings happend it EXPLOEDED duh!! lol i yelled to my tv

 

[Spacethingy]

That video has the same effect as videos of the Hindenburg, 9/11 and trench warfare in WW1.

Horrific, but history-making stuff.

 

[Urwumpe]

What makes it also easier, is that the damage is done, and time has passed.

Also, I am no fan of declaring these astronauts heroes because they died in a mission. All astronauts are either heroes or they are just hard working people - depends on how you call people who risk their life and health everyday for working at the frontiers of humanity. Dying is no heroic act and it was no deliberate sacrifice, that you can say has anything done for saving the lives of others. Sad is the nation, that needs such heroes. Even more, it makes it look like astronauts have to die as part of their duty. That is completely wrong, astronauts have to stay alive, or the mission is failed. They just take more personal risks and more personal responsibility as others - and if this responsibility is betrayed by NASA managers, they are not heroes, but rather victims.

And so, what is left? You see dramatic sequences of images of a preventable accident, that should be seen by every engineer for reminding how small errors can go wild. You don't see astronauts passing out, getting shaken by strong accelerations, injured by small debris flying around and getting crushed on impact on the surface of the ocean. That sure makes it easier. It is a as clean situation as the first nuclear bomb explosion, which also makes it easy to not look for the corpses.

If you watch it, be happy that it was not you that day. And if you one day have responsibility for the lives of others, remind yourself that what killed Challenger was not a leak in the SRB joint, but a chain of decisions, in which managers put their careers and political goals over the safety of astronauts. If it wouldn't have been Challenger, another mission would be hit. It was inevitable as long as the managers had not been responsible.

And it was maybe what Challenger also failed, because the mindset did not die with it. It happened again for Columbia. And maybe, it will happen again. I am not sure, that managers learned from their mistakes, without ever being responsible for their decisions.

 

[HAL9001]

I agrere, too, even tough I wasn't born when the Challenger exploded.

 

[rocketdued]

remembering the challenger.

yeah it seems alot of pepole have similar tales about the challenger. i remember my dad telling me he was on the side of the road in connecticut in a semi when it exploded.

 

[indonesianorbinaut]

[quote\HAL9001]I agrere, too, even tough I wasn't born when the Challenger exploded. [/quote] I agree

---------- Post added at 21:02 ---------- Previous post was at 21:01 ----------

I agrere, too, even tough I wasn't born when the Challenger exploded.

I agree

 

[rocketdued]

remembering the challenger.

i don't know very much about challenger's doomed flight. other then what i have seen on television about it. theres a few documentrys i have seen. from what i understand it wasn't supposed to launch in weather that cold but they did any ways:facepalm:

 

[Wishbone]

I suggest reading the reports, the Congressional for the Challenger and CAIB for Columbia. If we don't remember the lessons of the past we're doomed to repeat it with a vengeance.