Like Spaceships Bursting Through Cloud....
I don't usually make note of historic events. But I wanted to write up these two to honor some of the brave men and women who have sacrificed so much to get us closer to the stars.
On January 27th, 1967, the NASA lost three of its men in a fire during a launch pad test.
The astronauts who died: Lt. Col. Virgil I. Grissom, who was a veteran of the Mercury and Gemini missions; Lt. Col. Edward H. White, the astronaut who performed the United States' first spacewalk; and Roger B. Chaffee, who was preparing for his first space flight.
Their names are listed on the Space Mirror Memorial at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. The Apollo 11 crew left and Apollo 1 mission patch on the moon's surface, and the launch pad used for the testing site, Launch Complex 34, bears two plaques in memorial of the tragedy.
One of these two plaques reads: In memory of those who made the ultimate sacrifice so others could reach for the stars; Ad astra per aspera (a rough road leads to the stars); God speed to the crew of Apollo 1.
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And then, on January 28th, 1986, NASA lost a shuttle in perhaps one of the most well known space disasters in history.
On January 28th, 1986, we lost the Challenger. The shuttle broke up 73 seconds into its flight, leading to the deaths of all 7 of its crew members. The disintegration was caused by a faulty O-Ring seal, and its failure allowed pressurized hot gas from within the rockets to reach the outside.
The crew members who died: Michael J. Smith, Dick Scobee, Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Christa McAuliffe, Gregory Jarvis, Judith Resnik.
Christa McAuliffe was to be the first civilian in space. She was a teacher from Concord, New Hampshire.
Her name, along with the names of the other crew, are preserved on the same Space Mirror Memorial as the crew of Apollo 1.
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On January 27th, 1967, the NASA lost three of its men in a fire during a launch pad test.
The astronauts who died: Lt. Col. Virgil I. Grissom, who was a veteran of the Mercury and Gemini missions; Lt. Col. Edward H. White, the astronaut who performed the United States' first spacewalk; and Roger B. Chaffee, who was preparing for his first space flight.
Their names are listed on the Space Mirror Memorial at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. The Apollo 11 crew left and Apollo 1 mission patch on the moon's surface, and the launch pad used for the testing site, Launch Complex 34, bears two plaques in memorial of the tragedy.
One of these two plaques reads: In memory of those who made the ultimate sacrifice so others could reach for the stars; Ad astra per aspera (a rough road leads to the stars); God speed to the crew of Apollo 1.
--
And then, on January 28th, 1986, NASA lost a shuttle in perhaps one of the most well known space disasters in history.
On January 28th, 1986, we lost the Challenger. The shuttle broke up 73 seconds into its flight, leading to the deaths of all 7 of its crew members. The disintegration was caused by a faulty O-Ring seal, and its failure allowed pressurized hot gas from within the rockets to reach the outside.
The crew members who died: Michael J. Smith, Dick Scobee, Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Christa McAuliffe, Gregory Jarvis, Judith Resnik.
Christa McAuliffe was to be the first civilian in space. She was a teacher from Concord, New Hampshire.
Her name, along with the names of the other crew, are preserved on the same Space Mirror Memorial as the crew of Apollo 1.
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