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

Rest in Peace, Brave Souls

[A10Mechanic]

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.

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:has it really been nearly thirty years?

[dotancohen]

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

I was nine years old at the time, and I saw the smoke trail with the two SRB trails distinctively rising from the round BOOM cloud. I had written to NASA only a short time earlier, expressing my interest in becoming an astronaut. I still have the letter that I received back, shortly after the accident.

You know what? I've cried a lot since then. We've had rocket attacks on my city, I've had friends killed on the road, by sniper, and by their own bad habits. I've come close two times that I remember vividly, once while my wife was pregnant with our first. Those fourteen brave men and women who were lost in the name of exploration deserve our respect, but not our tears. They knew what they were doing. They did it anyway. Cry over people who die young for no reason other than "I hate you" or "I'm stupid". Don't cry over the elderly who die, and don't cry over the brave who took their chance. Celebrate them instead.