:: W4B photography's companion blog ::

:: Saturday, January 28, 2006 ::

"Roger, go at throttle up."
history: Those were the last words spoken by Commander Francis R.Scobee spoken at T+ 1:10 into the flight. The last words in the official Challenger voice recorder transcript are from Pilot Michael J. Smith three seconds later. A simple "Uhoh."

It is difficult to think that it was twenty years ago today that the shuttle Challenger roared from the pad at KSC, and minutes later it exploded off the Florida coast destroying the ship and dooming the crew. I was in highschool getting ready for a history class where we were going to watch the launch because of the tie in to having the first teacher, Christa McAuliffe, go into space. It was a staggering thing to see that white puff of smoke and the SRBs careen off slowly and wildly. That, the WTC, and the Columbia breaking up over Texas in 2003, I all saw live. They were a few of my "where were you when?" moments.

President Reagan, in a nation wide address from the White House said the following which sums it up nicely:

"The future doesn't belong to the fainthearted; it belongs to the brave. The Challenger crew was pulling us into the future, and we'll continue to follow them."

More from CNN, and some links from the official Challenger page at NASA are here.

Carpe Diem

:: Mike Wood 11:30 [+] :: 0 comments
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