Today is NASA's Remembrance Day, the day they set aside to honor astronauts who perished.

Link: http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/dor_front/index.html

I vividly remember both shuttles. Was going to Purdue during the Challenger disaster. They actually canceled classes because Purdue was and still is so closely tied to the space program.
I was watching the news on the Saturday morning when Columbia came in and had to leave for work. They said they lost contact with the orbiter and my first thought was "This isn't going to end well."

God Speed...

Apollo 1, 01/27/1967
Grissom, Chaffe, White

Challenger, 01/28/1986
Scobee, Smith, Resnick, Onizukah, McNair, Jarvis, McAuliffe

Columbia, 02/01/2003
Husband, McCool, Anderson, Ramor, Chawla, Brown, Clark

I can't believe Tomorrow is 20 years already.........Plus it's my B-day........

Thanks for mentioning that Shaun! The only thing I pay attention to more than armor modeling is keeping up with Space Sciences.

Gunnie

A couple that were good friends of mine went into labor the morning of Challenger. I remember well they were very concerned that their son NOT be born on that day just because they were afraid it would affect him later on. They managed to get through the day and had him the next day.

The one thing that the Challenger brought home was how much we had become a TV news society. Even though I listened to radio reports throughout the day it wasn't until I got home that night and saw it on CNN that it really hit home it really happened. It was as if, "if it's not on TV it didn't happen."

I remember sitting in School watching it.........