Challenger, Columbia Wreckage On Public Display For First Time

An anonymous reader writes: A new exhibit at Kennedy Space Center is letting the public see wreckage from the Challenger and Columbia shuttles after keeping it from view for decades. Two pieces of debris from each lost shuttle and personal reminders of the astronauts killed in the flights will be on display. The AP reports: " NASA's intent is to show how the astronauts lived, rather than how they died. As such, there are no pictures in the 'Forever Remembered' exhibit of Challenger breaking apart in the Florida sky nearly 30 years ago or Columbia debris raining down on Texas 12 years ago. Since the tragic re-entry, Columbia's scorched remains have been stashed in off-limits offices at the space center. But NASA had to pry open the underground tomb housing Challenger's pieces — a pair of abandoned missile silos at neighboring Cape Canaveral Air Force Station — to retrieve the section of fuselage now on display."

Comments

has it really been nearly thirty years?

[ihtoit]

I remember that day as vividly as if it were yesterday, and how I cried for the Challenger Seven.

Re:Rest in Peace, Brave Souls

[MobSwatter]

I too like to remember those who have given the ultimate sacrifice in the quest for scientific achievement, but I have no desire to go look at the coffin. I'd rather watch a nice Imax movie of a shuttle floating over the horizon.

Plenty of sacrifice went on before the shuttle came into the picture. The original JFK space program never included a really big gas can with a glider strapped to it. Interesting idea if not an excellent engineering feat but it never included efficiency so it had to carry a lot of fuel to get up there on a fully automated launch and structurally was only designed for a glide style descent into the atmosphere which didn't give a lot of choices in landing it. JFK's short list guys was better.