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eftychia: Me in kilt and poofy shirt, facing away, playing acoustic guitar behind head (Default)
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QotD

posted by [personal profile] eftychia at 05:25am on 2010-01-28

"The explosion of the 'Challenger,' after twenty-four consecutive successful shuttle flights, grounded all manned space missions by the U.S. for more than two years. The delay barely evoked comment. . . . But contrast the early history of aviation, when 31 of the first 40 pilots hired by the Post Office died in crashes within six years, with no suspension of service." -- C. Owen Paepke

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There are 3 comments on this entry. (Reply.)
 

(no subject)

posted by (anonymous) at 06:36pm on 2010-01-28
I'm glad that we still memorialize the Challenger. It used to be common to talk about where we were when we heard the news about the explosion, just like people in the previous generation would talk about the JFK assassination or we now talk about 9/11.

-cchan8
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eftychia: Spaceship superimposed on a whirling vortex (departure)

(no subject)

posted by [personal profile] eftychia at 07:09pm on 2010-01-28
*nod* I remember where I was, and the conversation immediately afterward.


Cow orker: "If they offered you a seat on the next shuttle, would you still want to go, after this?"

Me: "Hell yeah. I'd be scared shitless, but I'd go."
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(no subject)

posted by [identity profile] realinterrobang.livejournal.com at 09:39pm on 2010-01-28
I have no memory of where I was when the Challenger exploded. I wouldn't have gone into space before it happened and I wouldn't go now -- astronauts still have an approximately 5% chance of winding up dead, and, no thanks. (If the Challenger explosion is so damn important anyway, why no ongoing memorials for the Apollo 1 crew, who died far more horribly IMHO.)

I also think that's a dreadfully unfair comparison -- Americans had been doing spaceflight since 1961. Comparing aviation in its very earliest days to a technology that should have been 25 years old at the time is insane -- a more fair comparison would be to commercial aviation safety in the 1940s.
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