Wednesday, Feb. 1, marks the passage of 20 years since the space shuttle Columbia broke up on reentry in 2003 while returning from a 16-day mission. The shuttle’s disintegration in the upper atmosphere killed seven astronauts: Commander Rick D. Husband, Pilot William C. McCool, David M. Brown, Laurel Blair Salton Clark, Kalpana Chawla, Michael P. Anderson and Ilan Ramon.
Image Credit: NASA
The destruction of the Columbia led to American shuttle missions being halted for two years, as astronauts instead used the Russian-launched Soyuz spacecraft to travel to the International Space Station.
When the Columbia disaster happened, the shuttle program was already nearing end-of-life and NASA was planning a new generation of spacecraft to take astronauts into space and beyond.
NASA’s annual Day of Remembrance on Jan. 26 also coincides closely with the anniversary of the space shuttle Challenger disaster on Jan. 28, 1986, in which seven other astronauts died: Commander Francis R. “Dick” Scobee, Pilot Michael J. Smith, Ellison S. Onizuka, Ronald E. McNair, Gregory B. Jarvis, Judith A. Resnik and Christa McAuliffe.
Image Credit: NASA
The Challenger disaster was even more horrific, given that millions of American children tuned in that morning to watch the launch. On board was an average American teacher, McAuliffe, who was not that much different than the 3 million other elementary school teachers watching the launch with their kids that morning.
About 73 seconds into Challenger’s flight, a fuel leak caused the right solid rocket booster to explode, shattering the shuttle and killing everyone aboard, traumatizing millions of children, many of whom had no idea what had happened other than that it was something very bad.
Addressing the nation, President Ronald Reagan ended by quoting John Gillespie Magee, Jr.’s 1941 poem “High Flight”: “The crew of the space shuttle Challenger honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives. We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and ‘slipped the surly bonds of earth’ to ‘touch the face of God.’”
The day also remembers the first three American astronauts lost in a spaceflight-related accident: Virgil I. Grissom, Edward H. White and Roger B. Chaffee, who died on Jan. 27, 1967, in a fire in their Apollo 1 capsule during a training mission.
Image Credit: NASA
Traveling into space isn’t easy. It takes a tremendous amount of knowledge, math and technical skill exercised by thousands of scientists and technicians to build the machinery needed to launch men and women beyond the pull of gravity out of Earth’s atmosphere. NASA has now sent more than 620 astronauts into orbit, to the International Space Station and to the moon via capsules and shuttles.
An undelivered speech prepared for President Richard Nixon articulated what would have happened if the Apollo 11 astronauts had died or been stranded on the moon with no way home: “In ancient days, men looked at stars and saw their heroes in the constellations. In modern times, we do much the same, but our heroes are epic men of flesh and blood. Others will follow, and surely find their way home. Man’s search will not be denied. But these men were the first, and they will remain the foremost in our hearts. For every human being who looks up at the moon in the nights to come will know that there is some corner of another world that is forever mankind.”
After Columbia, Challenger and Apollo 1, we stand on the verge of sending more men and women to the surface of the moon in the Artemis program.
The mission to the moon some 54 years ago captured its wonder and beauty in grainy images sent back to Earth that raptured capitalist and communist countries alike. When the Artemis missions send the Orion lander back to the Moon, the images its returns will come to us in high-definition 4K resolution, and a whole generation of schoolchildren will dream — to paraphrase Magee — of dancing the skies on laughter-silvered wings, wheeling and soaring and swinging high in the sunlit silence through footless halls and reaching out into the black.
“Sometimes painful things like this happen,” the president told schoolchildren after the Challenger disaster in 1986. “It’s all part of the process of exploration and discovery. It’s all part of taking a chance and expanding man’s horizons. The future doesn’t belong to the fainthearted; it belongs to the brave.”
Traveling to the moon and the spheres beyond will be dangerous. For a space mission to be successful, everything must go right. For a success to turn into tragedy, only one thing need go wrong. The important thing is that no matter the disasters and successes, we continue to push forward, to strive onward, to reach up, to go where no one has gone before, ad astra per aspera.
Christopher Fox Graham
Managing Editor
“High Flight”
By John Gillespie Magee Jr.
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 wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark nor ever 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.
Address to the Nation on the Explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger
President Ronald Reagan
January 28, 1986
Ladies and gentlemen, I’d planned to speak to you tonight to report on the state of the Union, but the events of earlier today have led me to change those plans. Today is a day for mourning and remembering. Nancy and I are pained to the core by the tragedy of the shuttle Challenger. We know we share this pain with all of the people of our country. This is truly a national loss.
Nineteen years ago, almost to the day, we lost three astronauts in a terrible accident on the ground. But we’ve never lost an astronaut in flight; we’ve never had a tragedy like this. And perhaps we’ve forgotten the courage it took for the crew of the shuttle. But they, the Challenger Seven, were aware of the dangers, but overcame them and did their jobs brilliantly. We mourn seven heroes: Michael Smith, Dick Scobee, Judith Resnik, Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Gregory Jarvis, and Christa McAuliffe. We mourn their loss as a nation together.
For the families of the seven, we cannot bear, as you do, the full impact of this tragedy. But we feel the loss, and we’re thinking about you so very much. Your loved ones were daring and brave, and they had that special grace, that special spirit that says, “Give me a challenge, and I’ll meet it with joy.” They had a hunger to explore the universe and discover its truths. They wished to serve, and they did. They served all of us. We’ve grown used to wonders in this century. It’s hard to dazzle us. But for 25 years the United States space program has been doing just that. We’ve grown used to the idea of space, and perhaps we forget that we’ve only just begun. We’re still pioneers. They, the members of the Challenger crew, were pioneers.
And I want to say something to the schoolchildren of America who were watching the live coverage of the shuttle’s takeoff. I know it is hard to understand, but sometimes painful things like this happen. It’s all part of the process of exploration and discovery. It’s all part of taking a chance and expanding man’s horizons. 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.
I’ve always had great faith in and respect for our space program, and what happened today does nothing to diminish it. We don’t hide our space program. We don’t keep secrets and cover things up. We do it all up front and in public. That’s the way freedom is, and we wouldn’t change it for a minute. We’ll continue our quest in space. There will be more shuttle flights and more shuttle crews and, yes, more volunteers, more civilians, more teachers in space. Nothing ends here; our hopes and our journeys continue. I want to add that I wish I could talk to every man and woman who works for NASA or who worked on this mission and tell them: “Your dedication and professionalism have moved and impressed us for decades. And we know of your anguish. We share it.”
There’s a coincidence today. On this day 390 years ago, the great explorer Sir Francis Drake died aboard ship off the coast of Panama. In his lifetime the great frontiers were the oceans, and an historian later said, “He lived by the sea, died on it, and was buried in it.” Well, today we can say of the Challenger crew: Their dedication was, like Drake’s, complete.
The crew of the space shuttle Challenger honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives. We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and slipped the surly bonds of earth” totouch the face of God.”
Note: The President spoke at 5 p.m. from the Oval Office at the White House. The address was broadcast live on nationwide radio and television.
Text of William Safire’s speech for President Richard Nixon, in the event of a disaster besetting Apollo 11.
Fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay on the moon to rest in peace.
These brave men, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, know that there is no hope for their recovery. But they also know that there is hope for mankind in their sacrifice.
These two men are laying down their lives in mankind’s most noble goal: the search for truth and understanding.
They will be mourned by their families and friends; they will be mourned by their nation; they will be mourned by the people of the world; they will be mourned by a Mother Earth that dared send two of her sons into the unknown.
In their exploration, they stirred the people of the world to feel as one; in their sacrifice, they bind more tightly the brotherhood of man.
In ancient days, men looked at stars and saw their heroes in the constellations. In modern times, we do much the same, but our heroes are epic men of flesh and blood.
Others will follow, and surely find their way home. Man’s search will not be denied. But these men were the first, and they will remain the foremost in our hearts.
For every human being who looks up at the moon in the nights to come will know that there is some corner of another world that is forever mankind.
