January 28, 1986

Above, STS-51-L crew: (front row) Michael J. Smith, Dick Scobee, Ronald McNair;
(back row) Ellison Onizuka, Christa McAuliffe, Gregory Jarvis, Judith Resnik.

Thirty years ago tomorrow morning, I was at my desk at Maryland Casualty Company when my mom called me. She never called me at work before.

She called to tell me that the space shuttle Challenger exploded during launch (mission STS-51) and that all of the crew were lost. 

Above, the Challenger memorial in Little Tokyo, Los Angeles. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

 Yes, tomorrow marks 30 years since the Challenger Disaster. I remember it like it was yesterday.