Some Gave All
So we may All Fly Free,
Into the Final Frontier
To Infinity and Beyond.
Today is the 46th anniversary of the Apollo 1 fire. Tomorrow, the 28th, is the 27th anniversary of the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. Friday, 1 February 2013, marks the 10th anniversary of the Space Shuttle Columbia loss.
Although not an anniversary often noted or remembered by anyone outside of the space program or its historical supporters, and not a date that falls within this same one-week span of tragic anniversaries, I'm also going to include 15 November - because in 1967, Michael J. Adams became the first U.S. space mission fatality while conducting the seventh test flight of his X-15.
The Apollo missions continued, and brought us to the moon. Our space shuttle fleet - the world's first re-usable space vehicles - is now retired, but our space program lives on. So, too, do our memories of the women & men who sacrificed their lives to help advance our capacity to extend small steps into giant leaps, to infinity & beyond.
This week, particularly this Monday and Friday, I salute our astronauts and our Space Program.
Update: There's now an excellent write-up with information about each tragedy by GrafZeppelin127 in the diary
Remembering Fallen Heroes: A Tough Week for NASA. Please read it & rec it, and help share the remembrance of these heroes.
Namaste, and thank you.