Twenty-Five Years Since The Challenger Explosion

from the and-what's-happened-since dept

There are those "big events" where you always remember where you were, how you heard about them, etc. Things like JFK's assassination or 9/11. And, for me, there's always the Challenger disaster. I remember, because I was in elementary school, and for the only time ever, the school just suddenly turned on the PA system to the entire school and started broadcasting the radio reports live, right after the explosion. There was no initial explanation -- just suddenly the radio blaring over the intercom. Everyone was confused at first, but it became clear what happened pretty quickly. It turns out that was 25 years ago today. The link there takes a look at what's happened to NASA since the Challenger disaster, including how it really tried to fix up safety efforts, and how it ended up getting complacent again, leading to the Columbia disaster in 2003. Today, NASA is still in trouble, and there are efforts to cut its budget drastically (while, at the same time, there are increasing, but still small, efforts at private space flight). I don't have much to say about this, but the space shuttle was a fixture of my youth, and the Challenger explosion was a big moment, so it's interesting to look back 25 years later.

Filed Under: challenger, nasa, space shuttle