33 Years Since The Challenger Disaster

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

It was one of those events that gets seared into one's memory, the kind that makes people remember exactly what they were doing, where and how they learned the news. The attack on Pearl Harbor, John F. Kennedy's assassination and 9/11/01 are ones that immediately come to mind.

Another was the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger on January 28, 1986.

I was at my desk at work when my mom called to tell me that the shuttle "blew up". I immediately asked her to pop in a blank tape in my VHS video machine to record all of the news coverage. She did and I still have the tape. It ends with President Reagan's address to the nation that night.

I was, and still am, a big fan of the U.S. space program. I attended two space shuttle landings at Edwards Air Force Base, one was Columbia and the other was Endeavour.

Thirty-three years since the Challenger disaster is a long time, but in many respects it almost seems like yesterday.