NASA Remembers Three Space Tragedies

Ok, I know that there are not a lot of NASA fans here, but thought we could set aside all of the NASA conspiracies for just a moment and remember those who did give their lives for space exploration:

Jan. 27, 1967 Apollo 1
Jan. 28, 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger
Feb. 1, 2003 Space Shuttle Columbia

~see full article~

It is not my intention with this thread to hear any conspiracy theories attached to these incidents, maybe they did not have to happen, I just think that they should be remembered.

Thanks for reading.

reply to post by hsur2112


They gave the full measure that man might start the long road to the stars. It's good to remember that exploration is always paid for by the lives of some who reach beyond the known world.

My hat is off to these fine people.

reply to post by NGC2736


Thanks, NGC2736. Sometimes it's too easy to get caught up in all the conspiracies, speaking for myself of course, and to forget about the lives of those that were directly affected. Gotta snap back to the real world sometimes.

awesome, i'm glad someone posted this, as i was about to... great article; thanks for posting...

here are a few sites:

NASA: Day of Remembrance
www.nasa.gov...
(there are some nice video tributes to all three missions here)

the Challenger was lost 21 years ago today... i was only 10 years old at the time but i remember that day clearly... RIP Challenger crew...

www.hq.nasa.gov...




Challenger Crew members during testing (MPEG 610K)
science.ksc.nasa.gov...

Challenger Crew members practicing (MPEG 1.3M)
science.ksc.nasa.gov...

Challenger Crew arrival at SLF (MPEG 1.2M)
science.ksc.nasa.gov...

Crew boarding Challenger (1/28/86) (MPEG 1.2M)
science.ksc.nasa.gov...

Challenger 51-L Liftoff (1/28/86) (MPEG 659K)
science.ksc.nasa.gov...

Challenger 51-L Explosion (1/28/86) (MPEG 869K)
science.ksc.nasa.gov...


the Columbia anniversary will be coming up in a few days as well, on 01 Feb... i just happened to wake up and turn on the tv just in time to see it all unfold... RIP Columbia crew...

those were the two saddest days of my life...

as for the Apollo 1 disaster, i wasn't born at the time... it was still a great loss and could have easily been prevented...

if you have a moment to spare today (or tonite), just gaze up at the sky for a few moments and remember these astronauts... despite all the controversies and conspiracy theories surrounding these disasters, all of these people are still real heros... they gave their lives doing what they loved most; you can't ask for a better way to go...

rock on! \m/

[edit on 28 1Jan 08 by m3rlz]

reply to post by m3rlz


Thank you for the post m3rlz, and thank you for the links. And yes, two of the saddest days of my life as well. I remember just like it was yesterday. But I can also remember with such great excitement, without giving away my age, watching the first man to walk on the moon.

Looking forward to the future, never forgetting the past.

reply to post by hsur2112


Well done to remember that without conspiracy theories. I have been alive only for Columbia, but all those astronauts were heroes.

I would just like to add something. Let's remember all, not just NASA's astronauts.

1967 April 24: Vladimir Komarov died when parachute on his spacecraft filed to open.

1967 November 15: Michael J. Adams died when his X-15 went out of control. X-15 was also an important program for spaceflight.

1971 June 30: Georgi Dobrovolski, Viktor Patsayev and Vladislav Volkov died because they lost air after undocking from Salyut 1.

Yuri Gagarin died on March 27, 1968. It wasn't during a spacefilght, but he was also a hero.

Let's remember all of them, doesn't matter where they are from. They were all our heroes.

[edit on 3/2/2008 by sovietman]

[edit on 3/2/2008 by sovietman]

Thanks, sovietman, for remembering the other astronauts and cosmonauts who have perished in the line of duty. Perhaps there should be a national or international holiday of remeberance for fallen space heroes.

All of these tagedies occurred during my lifetime, but the first I remember being aware of at the time it happened is the loss of the Soyuz 11 crew.

I was present at Cape Canaveral on 28 January 1986 and witnessed the Challenger disaster firsthand. I could see pieces of the vehicle falling like silver snow toward the Atlantic Ocean for nearly an hour after the explosion. The air was so still and clear that the cloud hung in the dark blue sky all afternoon and was visible even to people 200 miles away.

The worst part of the Apollo 1, Challenger, and Columbia accidents is that the conclusions of all three investigating boards were nearly identical. I hope that doesn't mean that NASA will lose another crew sometime between 2015 and 2025 due to cultural issues within the agency that allow overwhelming schedule pressures to overide safety issues.

Thank you sovietman for including the cosmonauts who have perished as they absolutely deserve equal mention.