February 1st, 2003 - Today was the saddest day in the history of mankind when the U.S. space shuttle, Columbia, exploded over Texas shortly after they re-entered Earth's atmosphere; they were around 16 minutes away from landing at Cape Canaveral, Florida. The crew, including the first Israeli astrounaut, perished in the unfortunate accident. I learned about the Columbia explosion through family friends and watched a live video of the broken Columbia streaking across the blue Texas sky.....
When I watched this on t.v. this morning, I was instantly brought back to the fateful day on January 28th, 1986, of the Challenger crew perishing in the explosion 72 seconds after its lift-off. I was a junior at a rural high school in Illinois, pretty excited to watch history being filmed at the same launch site both Challenger and Columbia embarked on their historic missions. Challenger carried its first teacher/astronaut/woman, Christa McAuliffe, to the sky. Horror was the first thing that flashed through my mind upon seeing the disaster on t.v...
Fate dealt an ironic twist to both shuttle incidents, 17 years apart from each other. Fate also dealt another ironic twist to the Apollo 1 incident, also in January, 1967. I think that was around January 27th..
Pridestorm's Home is dedicating this memorium to the honored crews of both Challenger and Columbia. We shall remember the brave crews who gave their lives in the name of space exploration and science, as we embark on our odessey through the 21st century to improve our lives and technologies... May the Lord rest the blessed souls of both crews.
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