January 27, 1967 - Apollo accident (fire) during training exercise. Roger Chaffee, Virgil Grissom, Ed White.

Coming up -

January 28, 1986 - Challenger. Greg Jarvis, Christa McAuliffe, Ron McNair, Ellison Onizuke, Judy Resnick, Francis Scobee, Michael Smith.

February 1, 2003 - Columbia. Mike Anderson, Dave Brown, Kalpana Chawla, Laurel Clark, Rick Husband, Bill McCool, Ilan Ramon.

Tom

Thank you Tom, my heart and prayers shall always go out to those who have given the biggest sacrifice, for what they believed in

I don't watch stuff live anymore since the Challenger. I stood there like so many other people, in shock, thinking "I just watched seven people die."

Thank you so much for the timely reminder, Tom.

Each and every time I see the shuttle take off and when it comes in to land, I am reminded of these events. I know there is no question that it is on your minds there at NASA, in the quiet spaces when everything sems to be going well.

I sit there and I hold my breath and I pray that they take off safely and have a safe mission and that they return safely to earth. I pray for those brave souls on the space station, that they stay safe and that there are no accidents while they work way up there above us, often forgotten by the public except for when another shuttle or rocket takes off, whether it is from the USA or from Russia.

I never take it lightly. Every mission is dangerous. I think we all became too complacent when everything seemed to go right time after time, and forgot the danger involved in what is essentially flying a bomb heavenwards.

God Bless those brave people who dare to do what they do, and especially those who do not return.

Thanks again Tom, for doing what you do to keep them safe and sound and for your updates and reminders to us!

I watched that with my then 2 yr old son. And thought it was just some old news clip, till they replayed it a hundred times - you know how you aren't always paying attentiion when there's a 2 yr old around.

I felt awful for that. for not knowing what I'd seen, for the people on the challenger, and for not sheilding my tot form that horror.

All I could think was how awful for McAuliff's class. Oh those poor little kids....

I get why she did it though. It's the coolest thing in the world. If there's anything worth risking your life for, it's space.

I'll never forget the Challenger...my BIL called and said, "The Challenger just exploded..." I said, "Yeah, right." He said, "No, really, turn on the TV." I hated watching Christa McAuliffe's mom as she watched her daughter's spaceship fall from space...horrible.
I also remember the Wednesday before...I was taking a class on New Thought...my instructor was an astrologer...he said as class was ending, "Watch the news over the next week...there's going to be a major airplane accident of some kind." Weird...