Challenger, 20 years

[da]

High Flight, by John Gillespie Magee, Jr.

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
of sun-split clouds, —and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of—wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air....

Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark nor even eagle flew—
And, while with silent lifting mind I’ve trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

Can it really be twenty years? I was home sick when the Challenger blew up, and I watched it on TV. 6th grade. I was quite the space-exporation nut back then. I think after the Challenger explosion my enthusiasm for manned space-flight diminished; I think I let my Oddysey Magazine subscription lapse that year. My parents were (and are) strongly opposed to manned space-flight on practical grounds, since it was mostly military and a huge expense better spent on other things. But I can remember arguing with them that it was still important, even after the explosion.

Comments

[melted-snowball.livejournal.com]

It is kind of funny, isn't it, that you wound up with someone with the same sort of opinion (though perhaps less strongly so...).

[da-lj.livejournal.com]

You certainly express the opinion more strongly than my parents did... Which doesn't necessarily mean it's a stronger version of the opinion, but I'm just sayin'.

Anyway, the opinion makes sense to me; and it's certainly a mainstream one.

Also, it makes sense to me that sometimes you're more conservative than I am. :)

[kraig.livejournal.com]

This comment is of little value save to say, hey, me too: I was home sick that day. I remember I was napping in my bedroom, and I woke up then decided to turn the TV on to see what was happening. (It didn't take very long in those days, we only got CBC clearly and CTV came in fuzzy.) They were running footage of the explosion, which had happened only a few minutes before, and I recall the feeling of unreality that washed over me.

Funny, I would have been in sixth grade as well.

I was never a big proponent of manned space flight, nor did I dislike it. I think now, though, we should spend more time exploring our oceans than we do space - more bang for the buck when it comes to practical applications. Nowhere near as sexy though, unless a giant octopus attacks your sub (see the news from the left coast?).

[da-lj.livejournal.com]

unless a giant octopus attacks your sub (see the news from the left coast?).

...Hah. no, I hadn't. I suppose it's even sexier if the giant attacking octopus is amorous and senile.

That's funny that we were both home sick from grade 6. ...As I think about it, I'm not certain whether I knew the launch would be on in advance; if I did, it's possible that I was faking being sick so I could watch it...

[melted-snowball.livejournal.com]

It's also possible you were both watching it on CBC, despite being in different countries...

[kraig.livejournal.com]

Hah, well, it had to have been CBC for me.

I know I didn't fake sick though; I don't think I even remembered the launch until I saw it exploding.

I do remember though, one rainy morning at public school in Guelph, listening to the live radio broadcast of the very first shuttle launch being piped into our classroom over the intercom.

[da-lj.livejournal.com]

Nope, it was CBS for me. ...But that time, the CBC repeater had been replaced by an ABC station.

[arcticturtle.livejournal.com]

I don't remember being very sad about Challenger. At the time, I think it felt like the sort of sacrifice you don't resent, and I assumed that everybody involved would feel the same way.

I cried when Columbia was lost, though. As much for the machine as for the people, I'm afraid, because Columbia was the Space Shuttle in my mind, the one whose maiden flight I stayed home from school to watch on TV, the heart of the whole longing.

[da-lj.livejournal.com]

Um. Wow. Before I say this, I'm reasonably sure I'm not rewriting my history... but I think your comment precisely captures my opinion when the Challenger exploded; I wasn't able to figure that out until you said it.

I gradually become more disaffected (or maybe depressed/conflicted) about space-travel, when it became clear that the rest of the US was going to turn the explosion into a discourse on whether the shuttles should continue at all.

If you ever get the chance to hear Laurie Anderson's "The End of the Moon" (which I'm hoping she puts on CD eventually), I think you will like it. She talks about her sense of loss when Columbia was spread across the continent...