Remembering All Who Gave Their Lives To the Final Fontier

It will be forty years this coming Wednesday, January 28, 1986, when the Challenger exploded seventy-three seconds after liftoff. It will be fifty-nine years since Apollo 1 caught fire during a test on the launch pad on January 27, 1967.

It also will be twenty-three years since Columbia blew apart as it returned to earth passing over Texas on February 1, 2003.

In each case, there was nothing NASA, or anyone else, could do to save them. Several other American astronauts and Soviet cosmonauts died in the pursuit to explore space, the final frontier.

“It’s hard to believe it was that long ago,” said four-time astronaut and former NASA associated administrator Bob Cabana during NASA’s Day of Remembrance ceremony yesterday at KSC’s Visitor Complex. “For those of us who were around at the time, the picture of those two solid rocket motors, their plumes going off in separate directions against that clear, blue Florida sky that morning is something that’s firmly etched in our brains that we will always remember.”

These brave souls should and will be remembered now and always for the noble cause of learning the secrets of space and the knowledge which will be gained for all mankind. It is an innate quality we have as a species to learn all we can about our neighborhoods and our universe.

As much as the explorers who left the comfort of their homes to find “shorter routes” to Asia more than five centuries ago, and instead, found two continents and several unexpected islands in the way as they headed west, they learned much about the world they did not know in which they lived. It inspired additional journeys to learn all they could as their horizons expanded.

To the modern-day men and women who died daring this same pursuit, we salute you. 

As President Reagan said that night when the seven astronauts died in the Challenger explosion,  they "slipped the surly bonds of earth to touch the face of God," a poignant line from the poem "High Flight" used to honor their sacrifice and aspirations. He further told the nation, "We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye". 

As NASA prepares to visit the moon again next month with Artemis II, let us remember those who went before into the vast reaches of space to pave the road for a new way and pray for a safe return.

May God continue to keep them all safe and may He continue to bless them forever.