History, Political Commentary, Space, Space History, Technology and Society

Space Anniversaries

22 Comments

Yesterday was the 48th anniversary of the loss of three astronauts on the launch pad, in preparation for the Apollo missions. A child of the space age, I remember it particularly well, because it occurred the day before my twelth birthday. A little over nineteen years later, on my actual birthday, Challenger was lost. I recollected it on the sixteenth anniversary of the event.

Today is the twenty-ninth anniversary of that tragedy, and while I commemorate it, I also celebrate the completion of my sixtieth trip around the sun, over eight thousand miles from home. I’m in Israel to attend a conference named after Ilan Ramon, an Israeli hero who died a dozen years ago on February 1st, when Columbia disintegrated in the skies over east Texas. That anniversary coming up with Sunday, by which time I’ll be home, if all goes according to plan, to celebrate with friends and family, but also grieve for the losses. Yet as I point out in my book, such losses are inevitable, and necessary, perhaps even at a faster rate than once per generation, if we wish to accomplish much greater things than we have in space over the past six decades since my birth.

22 thoughts on “Space Anniversaries”

  2. I find it a little strange that Challenger is closer chronologically to Apollo 1 than it is to today, I remember Challenger so well, and it seems so recent.
    It probably has something to do with so little happening in spaceflight since then.

  5. In the 2002 blog post, you compared Challenger to the September 11th attacks: shock events where everyone remembers, decades later, where they were and what they were doing when they heard the news. Those somewhat older than myself remember the JFK assassination the same way – they remember where they were and what they were doing, as if their own personal story was actually a part of the larger event.

    I was in the computer lab in high school when someone came in and said the shuttle blew up; my immediate response was “Bullshit!” I was driving my roommate to work when the first plane hit the tower, and on my way back home listening to coverage on the radio when the second plane hit. I remember where I was and what I was doing, even though that has nothing whatsoever to do with the events themselves.

    I’m sure there’s a psychology paper somewhere that explains this, with lots of handwaving.

    1. my immediate response was “Bullshit!”

      Me too. I was in NYC. More so when they blamed the SRBs. Then we found out about the ‘culture’ that lead to the failure. They haven’t fixed that culture problem, just added worsening layers.

  7. Belated Happy Birthday wishes, Rand. Your wisdom shows your age, but your vigor still seems quite younger.

    It is interesting that your posts run a familiar line to other stories I’ve read when people visit Israel. A focus seems to come during such a visit, a clarity that may have existed previously, yet is still enhanced by the visit. It sounds like a good trip to make, and I glad you were able to do it. I appreciate yours and your commenters sharing of such an experience.

  8. And as Moore’s Law marches on toward the point at which we’ll have processors and chipsets capable of supporting human consciousness, I’ve become convinced that these brave astronauts should be the first to resume their lives as post-biological human beings, to help cement the legal regime of substrate neutrality. I’ve read some absolutely *appalling* statements by people working on brain simulation, that presupposed that Of Course the resultant entity would be property, not a person with the same rights of life, liberty and pursuit of happiness as persons in meatbodies. Having the first digital resurrectees being these brave astronauts will make it far harder for someone to push the position that they’re property than if the first digital resurrection is some nerd bringing back his Aunt Mabel who died in a nursing home somewhere.

    2. If it becomes possible to replicate the human brain in silicon, these astronauts will not be the ones being resurrected. You’d need at the very least an intact, preserved head. For the 17 American astronauts who have died, this preservation was not done. Walt Disney has a better chance.

      1. That assumes that the brain needs to be replicated, rather than just memory and personality, the fundamental building blocks of mind. We’re so used to life as embodied beings that we automatically think in bodily terms, rather than focusing on the mind.

        I think it can be done, but the only way to know is to set forth to do it.

  10. Rand, happy birthday!

    As a small child, I’d always wanted to see a shuttle launch. A little after my 12th birthday, I got my chance; a family trip to Florida, Disneyworld, and, if we got lucky on timing, a Shuttle launch.

    As luck would have it, a delayed shuttle flight happened, and we saw it from the Jetty Park area at port Canaveral. It was awesome, even though far away – well worth waiting in the cold for.

    I’d never seen a shuttle launch in person, though I’d seen plenty on TV. For 53 seconds, I was thrilled.

    I was surprised when the SRB’s vectored off. I’d never seen that happen before. Young and naive as I was, I didn’t want to believe what I was seeing, but the reaction of the crowd, delayed though it was, left no room for doubt.

    I still have photos I took earlier in that week, of Challenger and Atlantis on their pads (the first time two shuttles had been on the pads at once). I don’t look at them much.

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