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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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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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.