I was sitting in Mr. Goldman's second-period U.S. History class the morning the Challenger exploded. We were watching a video on the Civil War. The principal got on the loudspeaker and made a schoolwide announcement: the space shuttle had blown up and there were no survivors.
The administration set up a large television in the old auditorium. At break, hundreds of high school kids crowded the seats, the aisle, the balcony. Hundreds of teenagers, but you could have heard a pin drop. We were slack-jawed, watching the explosion over and over and over again.
My parents' generation had JFK. Mine had the Challenger disaster. The assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan? Not even close. The only event in my lifetime that's been more of a shock was the destruction of the World Trade Center.
Now my proposed space mix has a form and a purpose…
Space Oddity by David BowieGround control to Major Tom
Ground control to Major Tom
Take your protein pills
And put your helmet on10
Ground control to Major Tom
9 - 8 - 7 - 6
Commencing countdown, engines on
5 - 4 - 3 - 2
Check ignition
1
And may God's love be with you
LiftoffThis is ground control toMajor Tom
You've really made the grade
And the papers want to know
Whose shirts you wear
Now it's time to leave the capsule
If you dareThis is Major Tom to ground control
I'm stepping through the door
And I'm floating in the most peculiar way
And the stars look very different todayFor here
Am I sitting in a tin can
Far above the world
Planet Earth is blue
And there's nothing I can doThough I'm past 100,000 miles
I'm feeling very still
And I think my space ship knows
Which way to go
Tell my wife I love her very much
She knowsGround control to Major Tom
Your circuit's dead, there's something wrong
Can you hear me Major Tom
Can you hear me Major Tom
Can you hear me Major Tom
Can you hearAm I floating round my tin can
Far above the Moon
Planet Earth is blue
And there's nothing I can do
Major Tom (Coming Home) by Peter Schilling Standing there alone, the ship is waiting All systems are go -- are you sure? Control is not convinced, but the computer Has the evidence -- no need to abort The countdown startsWatching in a trance, the crew is certain
Nothing left to chance, all is working
Trying to relax up in the capsule
"Send me up a drink," jokes Major Tom
The count goes on4 - 3- 2 - 1
Earth below us, drifting falling,
Floating weightless
Calling calling home...Second stage is cut, we're now in orbit,
Stabilizers up, running perfect
Starting to collect requested data
"What will it effect when all is done?"
Thinks Major TomBack at ground control there is a problem
"Go to rockets full!" - not responding
"Hello Major Tom, are you receiving?
Turn the thrusters on! We're standing by."
There's no reply4 - 3 - 2 - 1
Earth below us, drifting falling,
Floating weightless
Calling calling home...Across the stratosphere, a final message:
"Give my wife my love", then nothing more
Far beneath the ship the world is mourning
They don't realize he's alive
No one understands, but Major Tom sees
Now the life commands:
"This is my home! I'm coming home!"Earth below us, drifting falling,
floating weightless
coming home...
home...
home.....
Why Me? by Tony Carey (as The Planet P Project)Sitting up here watching all the lights blink down below
The earth is turning, why does it go so slow?
Thinking about the girl I left behind --
"Houston can you hear me, or have I lost my mind?"Why me?
Why me?We were waiting on the pad, all systems were go
The man up in the tower was enjoying the show
Then I got this feeling that I never had before --
"Hey let me out of here, what am I here for?"Why me?
There must be a thousand other guys,
Must be some other way to look good in your eyes
Why am I up here? What do they see in me?
Must be one thousand other places to be
Why me?The last man to be here was never heard from again
He won't be back this way til 2010
Now I'm riding on a fountain of fire
With my back to the earth, I go higher and higherWhy me?
There must be a thousand other guys
Must be some other way to look good in your eyes
Why am I up here? What do they see in me?
Must be one thousand other places to be
Why me?Why me?
Take anyone but me!
Why me?
The day of the Challenger explosion, I wrote a poem. It's a typical sophomoric teenage effort, but it Dad liked it:
Sunrise (for Christa McAullife)"Ashes to ashes, dust to dust..."
Wings spread,
Face to the new-born sun,
Man's most glorious achievement,
An ominous routine.Dream on my child,
Dream on my child.Screams unheard,
Yet felt by millions --
All our dreams come
Down
In Flames.Tears fall with fire
Into an uninterested sea.Silent.
by a very young J.D. Roth
Why doesn't the loss of the Columbia affect me in the same way?
On this day at foldedspace.org
2005 — Audible Every winter I budget a few hundred dollars to buy myself a present. This year I joined Audible (and got an iPod mini).
2002 — Printers and MP3s I want a small, cheap wearable mp3 player, one perfectly suited for using in the gym.
I was home sick when the Challenger exploded. I didn't see it live, but I turned on the tv during a contextless replay (no voice over, no scrawl at the bottom of the screen), so I might as well have seen it live.
But years later, I read this (written by Richard Feynman), and since then I haven't been able to take NASA as seriously or idealistically as I once did.
Lots of scientists really question the usefulness of manned spaceflight at all, as you can get a taste of here, here, here, here, here,
here, and here. (Whew!) (Some of those links support manned spaceflight, some don't.)
I know that I now see manned space flight more as a political issue and an engineering problem, not basic research. But that's just me.