Jan 282006
Twenty years ago today, the space shuttle Challenger exploded soon after liftoff from Cape Canaveral. I was twelve years old at the time and I still remember where I was at the time I heard about the explosion. I was eating lunch in a small room that was reserved for students with disabilities at Franklin Middle School in Green Bay (although it was still called a junior high at the time). One of the secretaries came in and told us the news. For my generation, I think the Challenger explosion is one of those crystalline moments in time; much like the Kennedy assassination for my parents. Now that the shuttle fleeting is nearing retirement age, I find it somewhat ironic that the design for NASA’s new spacecraft (for exploration of the Moon and Mars) hearkens back to the capsule that was used in the days of Gemini and Apollo.
