Dying Man Shares Unseen Challenger Video 266
longacre writes "An amateur video of the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger explosion has been made public for the first time. The Florida man who filmed it from his front yard on his new Betamax camcorder turned the tape over to an educational organization a week before he died this past December. The Space Exploration Archive has since published the video into the public domain in time for the 24th anniversary of the catastrophe. Despite being shot from about 70 miles from Cape Canaveral, the shuttle and the explosion can be seen quite clearly. It is unclear why he never shared the footage with NASA or the media. NASA officials say they were not aware of the video, but are interested in examining it now that it has been made available."
Re:70 miles away on Betamax? (Score:5, Insightful)
It's not that it would be useful for analysis, but it's useful as documentation of an historical event.
Re:Speculation... (Score:5, Insightful)
Why would someone keep this private and/or secret for so long?
The launch and subsequent explosion were broadcast live on TV. I think if I'd shot it, I might have assumed that it was entirely redundant.
Re:Speculation... (Score:5, Insightful)
Why would someone keep this private and/or secret for so long?
Probably saw it on TV the next day and figured it nothing special. This was before the internet, and judging by the age of the guy, he probably never accessed much media beyond his neighbors and the local paper.
I don't remember NASA ever asking for other videos, and from the footage, it seemed that they had much higher quality stuff to analyze.
Then we get into the idea that this was a betamax camera, it is also possible that it sat in his things for years, and when his younger grandson or nephew realized what was on the tape, persuaded his granddad (great granddad?) to post it up to the internet/NASA.
Lots of valid reasons why this never saw the light of day until now, and I'm most comfortable with the idea that he never thought about it or thought he had anything special. He probably thought there were thousands of such videos from other amateurs in Florida.
Now we know... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Speculation... (Score:5, Insightful)
Because it was his memory. It may have his comments on it while he watched. I was watching when it happened and my father found parts on the beach which we did turn in. Over all we just didn't talk about it much. It is kind of hard when you realize that you just saw seven people die in front of your eyes. It is some how different than when you see it on the news. Also that cloud just hung over us the entire day. It felt like it would never go away.
Actually even trying to post about that day is hard. So I can see putting it on a shelf and not taking it down until I knew I was going to die.
Re:Elementary School in the 80s (Score:2, Insightful)
It's a basic fact of life that some people cope with disturbing things by making jokes about them.
Re:memories... (Score:5, Insightful)
I wasn't even born yet - but I had heard of Challenger and the failure, though I had never seen anything like it. It still strikes me as shocking even though I know whats going to happen. I feel the same sadness now as many must have felt over 20 years ago.
Part of me feels like I've just missed one of the greatest eras of mankind. Space Exploration, Cold war ending, Berlin wall coming down and all that. There was a time when Astronauts were hailed as heros, now our generation views them as simple scientists in the ISS. They're lucky if their launches or arrivals get 15 minutes of airtime. Seems like nothing happens unless there is a disaster. I know this is not true, as there are people still doing missions in space (Hubbles maintenance is the first one that comes to mind). It just saddens me that it is no longer "Big News" sending people into space, only when its a disaster. RIP Challenger Crew. May it not only serve as an example of the dangers involved, but also as a reminder of the men and women who brave those dangers for the pursuit of knowledge.
Re:Speculation... (Score:4, Insightful)
Challenger was the first shuttle launch I didn't watch, having moved back to Illinois. I'd gone outside for all of the previous shuttle launches, and we even drove to the cape to see a few. That thing is LOUD!
I was out looking for work when it happened, but it was traumatic for anyone, even just seeing it rebroadcast on TV (over and over) when I got home,so your point is well taken.
70 miles away on Betamax ... might still be useful (Score:5, Insightful)
Even distant observations might still be useful if it was shot at a different angle than other observations of the event, and as it's in the sky, and you're 70 miles away, it's a different angle.
The problem with video is that it's not as useful for judging the speed of things coming towards you, or away from you, unless it's of a fixed size, it's not tumbling, and you have sufficient resolution. If this had a different plane of the sky as the other 'official' footage, it could be used to test any 3d models that might've been made of the disaster, and if it disproves them, provide input for a new model to be made.
Disclaimer -- I work at a NASA center as a contractor, but I have absolutely nothing to do with the shuttle program.
Re:Speculation... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:RTFS (Score:3, Insightful)
Uh yeah, or that the living might want to sell the rights to their works and not have a corporation say, "look you're 70, so we'll give you $300 for it, but we're pretty comfortable just waiting for you to die."
70 years after death might be excessive, but in order for the selling price of a work to be related to the value of the work, copy rights need to be somewhat protected from the author's death. I'd suggest a fixed term that is smaller than 21 years. One generation is more than enough of a monopoly on cultural items.
Re:Speculation... (Score:3, Insightful)
It is kind of hard when you realize that you just saw seven people die in front of your eyes.
I would also like to point out that some people have more reverence for the dead than others. And that this individual could have decided out of respect of the families of those deceased to withhold the tape from the replay replay replay replay that major news networks would undoubtedly subject it to. Following the initial interest and showing of the footage, a release would simply be played again on the news, reminding those with lost loved ones and the nation of its failure.
Some people don't believe in making a spectacle of something like another individual's passing. It's entirely possible that this amateur film maker felt that way.
I can relate to it with a recent example. I was sitting in an airport over the holidays and a family was on TV grieving for their mother who was just killed in Haiti by a collapsed building. They chose to appear on that news network and they chose to open up all their emotions for the world to see. I was glad that the destruction and pain was effectively transmitted to me so I could understand their plight. I was not, however, glad to see the commercials for Jergan's Body Wash, the Latest Honda, Trojan Condoms, etc immediately following a young girl begging to have her mother's corpse returned to her.
I was only four when the Challenger disaster happened. But I can relate to that kind of pain through disasters of my time and respect this man's wishes to withhold this footage even despite the benefit it might have provided NASA or expedited the investigation.
Re:Speculation... (Score:4, Insightful)
Why would someone keep this private and/or secret for so long?
Conspiracy theorists obsess over things more the longer they were 'kept hidden'. Being handed over by a dying man? Well, that's even better. He's got nothing to lose anymore, so OBVIOUSLY releasing it before now would have brought the rage of the Illuminati down on him!
So my theory is that it's a conspiracy against conspiracy theorists.
Re:Speculation... (Score:4, Insightful)
+5 Troll?
Once a troll reaches +4, you need both fire *and* acid to kill it. Either that or magical fire / magical acid. If I remember correctly, +5 trolls regenerate all of their hp every round -- only a sadistic DM would throw that at his party.
Re:memories... (Score:4, Insightful)
I thought that too when I was twenty and had just lived through the 70's.
Are you sad when an oceanographic research vessel sets off on an expedition without even rating a mention on the local news? When a geological field team pitches it's tents and there isn't breathless 24/coverage on CNN? When a biologist checks into a local hotel before heading out into the woods, and the desk clerk just yawns and goes back to his book?
It's kind of like exploring the interior of the US. Lewis and Clark got all the glory for crossing it the first time - but it wasn't until decades later that surveyors, cartographers, geologists, and biologists fanned out across the country. (The latter two categories are *still* out there exploring.) But they didn't make the history books and don't make the news, they're lucky if they get passing mention on a Discovery Channel special. Nobody will ever raise a statue to them, celebrate the 200th anniversary of their work, or stage a re enactment of their work. Only exploration geeks like myself know the names of some the most famous among them. But they're the ones that got the real work done.
A great deal of the problems with out space program stem from the fact that for so long it's been heavily publicized and politicized, misleading people into believing that if it isn't worthy of news coverage then it isn't worthy of being done. It's past time we washed out hands of these romantic and sterile 'great leaps' and got on with hard, dirty, day in and day out work of engineering and exploration. It's going to be expensive, and slow*, and dangerous - and not at all romantic or glamorous, but we won't make progress until we do.
*Far more expensive and far slower than the 'great leap' showpieces. Which is the main reason we don't do it.
Re:memories... (Score:3, Insightful)
First of all, I shouldn't feed the trolls, but I am having a slow day at work.
Second of all, I understand that astronauts are not the only piece of the puzzle, in fact, we have many complex missions in space that involve no astronauts at all. Don't make the assumption that I don't.
Thirdly, I never said anything about this being "For the Country". I am not even American, so to take pride in American Astronauts wouldn't make any sense. When I talk about their contributions I mean to mankind as a whole, as a species.
Engineers and Scientists may work long hours, do harder work, and be rarer than astronauts. None of that changes the fact that they aren't the ones who die when things go wrong.
I think those people who sacrafice their relationships for this are of the opinion that a parade in their honour would be pointless. They'd rather people acknowledge their contributions and support the pursuit of science.
Re:memories... (Score:2, Insightful)
Just because someone came up with a brilliant idea for making the machine work does not make them a hero. What DOES make someone a hero is their willingness to risk their very life for something greater than themself. I'll probably get modded down for quoting the Bible on /., but, "No one has greater love than this, that someone would lay down his life for his friends." (John 15:13, HCSB).
Sure, there is something to be said for living a life of sacrifice, giving up something valuable every day for many years, but there is nothing greater than to die for someone else. That's the lesson of Apollo 1, Challenger, and Columbia. Those men and women were not only willing to die for the advancement of knowledge in our culture, they actually DID die.
Every mission is a selfless death for those astronauts. That they are able to receive their lives back, after they touch down, is a return of the gift they gave to us.
Re:Video here... (Score:2, Insightful)
Oh, man...the obliviousness and the repeating "that doe'n't look right..." over and over again is just heartbreaking.
Re:Mawkishness... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Mawkishness... (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm Canadian and 29 years old. I don't remember the real event, but I still tear up a bit when I see the Challenger break apart on video. Part of me hopes it won't each time, of all things.
They were carrying humanity's banner into space. They didn't make it. It's as if a top athlete were shot as they carried their nation's banner into an Olympic stadium.
That either resonates with you, or it doesn't.
Hero worship has nothing to do with it.
Because space exploration is fucking awesome. (Score:5, Insightful)
>You Americans are rather melodramatic about this entire event...have you every tried to consider why?
Because space exploration is fucking awesome, represents the height of human achievement, and the timeless urge of mankind to explore.
These people died doing something amazing, and thus they too were amazing.
Re:Mawkishness... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:memories... (Score:3, Insightful)
I was in high school when this happened - I didn't see the launch live, but I did see the replay on Channel 1 the next day (forced tv news for poor schools).
Thing is - that launch carried the first American school teacher up, and her class was watching the event live on TV (which was of course also being covered) - I can still see that classroom of kids with shock and horror over their faces, and I think some were crying. I'll never forget that.
Even today - watching that video its still leaves me feeling empty inside. Still - mistakes will happen, and its one of the risks of experimental flight.
Re:Elementary School in the 80s (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Speculation... (Score:3, Insightful)