We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them — this morning, as they prepared for their journey, and waved good-bye, and “slipped the surly bonds of earth” to “touch the face of God.”

On January 28, 1986, I was a college junior in the middle of winter break, working in the campus bookstore. As I was pushing a cart load of used books from the warehouse someone came out and said, “The Space Shuttle exploded!” I dashed over to the student union and learned that person was terribly correct.

Before I was a movie geek, I was a space geek. I still am but, sadly, there’s a lot less space travel these days to be geeky about. On that horrible Tuesday, 20 years ago today, watching those two lonely exhaust trails spiral away from a cloud of smoke and debris was a like a kick to the gut.

Anyway, I just had to pay tribute to seven individuals who gave their lives for the belief that discovery is the greatest adventure.

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 28th, 2006 at 2:58 pm and is filed under Commentary. Keywords: Not Movie Related. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

About the author:

Paul is paranoid and has low self-esteem. The world would be plotting against him if only it could be bothered.