Following yesterday's 47th anniversary of the loss of what came to be known as the Apollo 1 crew in a launch pad fire, today is the 28th anniversary of the loss of CHALLENGER and its 7-person crew off the coast of Florida.
Francis Scobee, Michael Smith, Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Judith Resnik, Greg Jarvis and Christa McAuliffe died in the explosion that was found to be caused by the weather-induced failure of an O-ring on one of the solid rocket boosters.
Next Monday will mark the 11 anniversary of the loss of the Space Shuttle COLUMBIA which broke up over Texas during re-entry with the loss of all 7 crew members, including Ilan Ramon, Israel's first astronaut who had also been the youngest fighter pilot in the strike Israel sent to destroy Saddam Hussein's unfinished nuclear reactor in 1981.
The loss of the Challenger 7 was a big shock to the nation. I was at NAS Jacksonville, FL standing on a dock off the BOQ watching the launch about 150NM south. I'd just transferred from California and had never seen a launch live, even one 150 miles away. It was just a thin column of smoke with a large light under it when it became a small ball and two smaller lights shot away from the ball.
Someone who had seen launches before said "It's an abort" thinking the SRB's had been blown off early as part of an abort. We all ran into the BOQ lounge to see what tv was saying and found out the sad truth.