25 year ago today, the challeger disintergration (it never really exploded) took the lives of 7 very brave and extremely well trained astronauts. the event is burned into my brain and will forever remain there as it was very hard to watch and we saw it happen at our school. i was 11. i honestly thought it was the end of the space program at that point. now, at eleven i had no knowledge of apollo 1 so i did not know that this was not the first disaster to befall NASA. i have been interested in science and space travel for as long as i can remember so this hit me hard. there have been lots of studies, film footage analysis and what not in the years since the disaster and i will not go into the breakdown of what exactly happened or what was to blame. i will simply say that i will be haunted forever by the statement that i read once that many in NASA believe that the astronauts were most likely alive and some of them may have still been conscious at the moment of impact with the ocean. the crew compartment broke away and fell and hit at over 200mph. it haunts me and i take this moment to remember their memory and honor it. i hope you do to.
http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_17221336?nclick_check=1http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2011/01/27/apollo-1-challenger-columbia-and-those-who-sacrifice-for-the-stars/