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January 28, 2006
To the memory of the Challenger crew
Twenty years ago today, the nation was stunned by the loss of the space shuttle Challenger and her crew of seven astronauts. I was 13 years old. At the time I did not yet have my pilot's license though I was already dreaming of it. Flying is one of the most thrilling things I can think of. The idea of space travel... well, there are no words for the feeling I have about it.
My 4 year old son and I enjoy watching the International Space Station on clear nights as it goes overhead. He knows there are people up there. In fact, the world he will grow up knowing is a world in which people have always been in space. There have been people in orbit every single day of his life. We also enjoy looking at the moon and the planets with our telescope (114mm Newtonian reflector). He knows the names of all the planets. (Saturn is our favorite.) Maybe he will want to go to space. Maybe my two year old daughter (who is still a little young for the telescope) will want to. Though the risks would be scary for a parent, it would make me very proud.
There is a feeling that you get when you fly solo in an airplane. You are alone, and yet there is no feeling of loneliness. You are as free as you will ever be while you have breath. Going into space must provide that feeling multiplied a hundred-fold. We earthbound people can only imagine what it must be like. Those who go into space not only pursue scientific knowledge. They also pursue a dream as old as mankind and as new as a preschooler looking through a telescope for the first time--the dream of leaving this world and taking our place among the stars.
The Challenger crew has taken their place among the stars.
The following poem has a special place in the hearts of pilots. It was quoted by Ronald Reagan in his eulogy of the Challenger crew. The words evoke feelings of joy and wonder, and that is an appropriate way to remember all who give their lives for the dream.
Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long, delirious burning blue
I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew.
And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.
"High Flight"
--John Gillespie Magee, Jr.
Posted by William Polley at January 28, 2006 1:06 AM
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» TWENTY YEARS AGO. from Cold Spring Shops
Despite weather-related delays that prompted some observers to mock the effort, Space Shuttle launches were so routine by January 1986 as to be all but ignored by the broadcast networks. [Read More]
Tracked on January 28, 2006 6:41 PM
Comments
Was it today? Brutal. I was on a business trip, working for a company that had many connections to the programme, and that had offices in Boca Raton. I learned of what had happened only in the cafeteria of their site.
After lunch, in the planned meeting, the trails of smoke from the disaster were visible in the sky from the office of my host.
A terribly sad day indeeed.
Posted by: Alan at January 28, 2006 1:53 PM
This is a very nice piece, Bill. As you know, I too am a fan of the stars as well but have not done enough to interest my kids in the stars to this point - although we've spent much time talking about them. We have watched the ISS go overboard.
I was in Principles of Microeconomics when I found out about the Challenger disaster and remember it as if it were yesterday.
Posted by: Phil Miller at January 29, 2006 9:36 PM
Hey. This is a great blog. Here's a site I found a minute ago about telescopes:
http://www.telescope-central.info
Posted by: Willie Jackson at January 29, 2006 11:21 PM