A Forgotten Dark Day In Our History

It's strange what you remember as societal milestones in your life.  You'd think they'd be happy things, but not so much. For my parents, it was the Kennedy assassignation.  For so many more, obviously, it's 9/11/01.  For my generation it's the explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger on January 28, 1986.

I was sitting in the training room at my high school, getting my ankles taped before basketball practice.  I was stunned.  And crushed.

You see, in 1981, I distinctly remember being assembled as a group in 4th or 5th grade to sit around a TV and watch the Space Shuttle Columbia (the first shuttle) emerge from space and land in California.  I remember being puzzled as to why grownups (my teachers) had tears in their eyes.  You don't understand tears of joy, amazement, and accomplishment when you're that young.

In my lifetime (to that point), nothing "bad" had really happened in the space program.  I thought we were so smart that our scientists would always anticipate anything that could go wrong, and so it wouldn't.  That of course is a naive notion.  Space travel has been and always will be a dangerous business.

Which takes me back to "Columbia."  On this date in 2003, it launched on what would be its final mission to service the Hubble Telescope.  On February 1st it would return, and burn up upon re-entry killing all aboard.

Odd that the Challenger explosion is so burned in my memory, yet Columbia's is not-especially as it was the first of the shuttles.

So today, I take a minute to salute those brave souls who 17 years ago undertook a mission to make our lives better and never returned.

God bless you all.