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The Challenger Space Shuttle blew up.
I was sitting in my kitchen watching on a 13" Black and White Television. As a six year old, learning about the launch and watching it live was exciting. My mother had to answer a lot of questions from me after I watched the trail go up, up, up...then, pop.
I remember that day vividly.
A few years later, our school held a reading program called "Fluency Fuels Our Ship".
The program was simple, read a book, get a star sticker to add to your laminated button you wore on your shirt. If you completed all the reading, then an assembly was held with parents, teachers and students. At the assembly, ping pong balls were dramatically added into a 3 foot "space shuttle" that would creep up our cafeteria wall to show our reading progress. Each time, the shuttle would take off, Whitney Houston would sound..."Give Me One Moment In Time...". Multiple assemblies were held, and one day, our goal was achieved! Our shuttle made it to the top! We were all so excited. The anticipation had built, the shuttle had launched, now what? Go back to class? No way. Surprise! We had a quest show up to school that day. Not just any guest, but a real, live, NASA Astronaut. Mr. Andy Allen, who joined NASA in 1987 (one year after the tragedy occurred on live television, what a brave man). Andy gave me an 8 x 10 glossy photo of himself in uniform, signed, with my name and his. He wrote a quote on the photo, but I haven't seen it in a few years, so I can't recall what it says. My mom has it all the way across the nation. I will try and get her to find it and post a photo.
Today I leave for my weekend roller derby clinic!!!!!!!!!
Wish me luck!!!
Wish me luck!!!
2 comments:
The weather the day of the Challenger accident was sunny and crystal clear with sparkling snow. It was such a beautiful day but all I could see in the sky as I drove to Michigan State was an emptiness. It seemed particularly resounding in sadness as two other memory kept company with our immediate loss. Several years earlier a friend of mine had lost her husband who was a Michigan State trooper in an act of violence. I saw again the line of police cars as they followed the procession across the overpass I was driving in the opposite direction. And then the third memory to emphasize the loss in the great mortality of accidents: the flash fire which killed Grissom, White, and Chafee as they sat in their capsule on the launch pad. Ironically, I found a picture of Andrew Allen this week. To my knowledge Andy was never chosen by NASA to fly but I do know he was a genuine, warm, sensitive man who was doing what he dreamed as were the Challenger crew and those who put themselves in harms way daily for humanity.
Click on the green link (of his name in the above post). Here is a quote from the Nasa link...
"A veteran of three space flights, Allen has logged over 900 hours in space. He was the pilot on STS-46 in 1992 and STS-62 in 1994, and was mission commander on STS-75 in 1996".
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