Challenger Anniversary During Lockdown

As you know, I moved to the UK several years ago. The UK is relatively new to sending any of its people into orbit and is working on starting a space industry of its own. In some years I am asked to speak briefly on the BBC (usually radio) about today’s anniversary of the Challenger explosion, bringing a bit of an insider’s view to Britons. It’s an honor worth the pain.

This year someone else is attending to it on the BBC, but posts and news bring memories back anyway. We’re in lockdown so the main available distraction is walking the dogs.

The space program is like a huge extended family. Even years after switching to private industry, I felt Columbia’s loss as badly as I felt Challenger’s. It’s like losing a chunk of family all at once.

Automatically, whether in or out of the program, I shove the emotions down and start analyzing whatever video or data I can get my hands on, looking for what went wrong. Freezing or melting down are not options. It’s habit. It’s drilled in by NASA.

Space exploration and utilization is maturing. Companies are able to get into it. Developing countries are able to get into it. As a species, we understand it better now. But danger will always be there. Every time we successfully go out into the void instead of merely sending a machine, we owe a debt of gratitude to those who went before us—especially those we lost along the way.

That is not where our debt to them should end. What we learn from the space program should not be limited to space-related endeavors. People can go into orbit only with the help of large ground crews that operate differently from the way too many businesses operate.

Let today be for remembrance of those we lost. They deserve this solemn day.

In my next post, I’ll talk about one of the most important things NASA strives to do that seems to be uncommon elsewhere. It literally isn’t rocket science. It’s about people.