Sunday, January 29, 2006

20 Years Ago-- The Race to Space Paused

I always believed that space travel would be available to regular people like myself by the year 2020. At least this is what I believed 20 years ago. Yesterday was the 20th anniversary of the Challenger space shuttle disaster. I was stunned by what happened, I can still recall exactly where I was standing when I heard about it. My first thought was all the kids watching it live on TV because the first "teacher in space" Christa McAuliffe was aboard.

To this day when there is a space launch of the shuttle I always stop and watch or at least pay attention. The crew of Challenger never made it into space that day and I always think of the danger they faced for science and exploration. While I am not terribly religious, I do keep them in my thoughts every time there is a launch.

Sadly the drive to space has slowed down dramatically and I don't believe accessible space travel will happen in my lifetime, which is a shame, because I always wanted to see the world from space.

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