Saturday, January 28, 2006

A memory forged in fire

Jan. 28, 1986, I know exactly where I was and exactly what I was doing. In classrooms across the country, kids were watching the launch of the space shuttle Challenger. Shuttle missions were still rare and widely watched. This one was extra-special. This mission carried a special astronaut, Christa McAuliffe, a teacher from New Hampshire and who would have been the first teacher in space. Everyone had talked about it.

And while space shuttle launches had become just a bit routine, this one soon turned into anything but typical. Just moments into the launch, as the shuttle catapaulted into the stratosphere, the dwindling shape of the orbiter and its rocket-fuel boosters exploded into a ball of fire as family members watched below and millions of people watched on live television around America.

Today is the 20th anniversary of the tragedy, and the intervening years have not been smooth for the space shuttle program with the shuttle Columbia disintegrating on atmospheric re-entry in 2003.

The Challenger explosion was a striking benchmark in my life, perhaps because of what it stood for -- exploration, science and the pursuit of knowledge. A new day was dawning in space research, a day that was postponed, perhaps for 20 years. It's time to renew the drive that took Americans to the moon and become a program that conducts scientific research for knowledge's sake. The American spirit needs the shot in the arm, and the seven astronauts who dies on Jan. 28, 1986, deserve for their legacy to be nothing less.

-- Seattle

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