Tag Archives: Space Shuttle

The End of an Era

The Space Shuttle Atlantis landed early this morning, closing the curtain on the Space Shuttle era. The thirty-year experiment with a reusable space vehicle (takes off like a rocket, lands like a plane) has come to an end. It was expected to save money by being reusable, but it didn’t quite work out that way. Now engineers agree that it’s more cost-effective — and safer — to use the more traditional rocket launch vehicles with the command module perched on top.

I still remember the first shuttle — Columbia — taking off in 1981 and, more impressively, landing safely at the end of the mission. It was an amazing feat. And out of 135 flights, two ended in disaster, reminding us all that space flight is still dangerous.

I’m not particularly sad to see the end of the shuttle era because I’d like to see more manned exploration of space outside of low-earth orbit. NASA wants to move in that direction, too. I hope to see the day man steps foot on Mars, and returns safely to earth. Americans have always been explorers at heart, and there’s a great big universe out there.

Obviously a major malfunction

I was a sophomore in high school when the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded 25 years ago on January 28, 1986. In the morning, the news spread throughout my school like a rumor that most people didn’t believe. By lunch time, it was confirmed, and TVs were set up where we could watch the news during lunch period. I remember everyone talking about how this was the “where-were-you-when-JFK-was-shot” moment of our generation. And it was, up until 9/11.

Making the event even more sad was the fact that a civilian teacher, Christa McAuliffe, was on board. Watching her parents react to seeing the Challenger disintegrate was heart-wrenching. Joy and pride turns to horror and disbelief in just a few seconds. While McAuliffe got the lion’s share of media coverage, the following crew members also lost their lives: Francis “Dick” Scobee, Michael J. Smith, Ellison Onizuka, Judith Resnik, Ronald McNair, and Gregory Jarvis. May they all rest in peace.

Where were you when you heard about the Challenger disaster?