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NASA

Challenger, Columbia Wreckage On Public Display For First Time 42

Posted by samzenpus from the have-a-look dept.
An anonymous reader writes: A new exhibit at Kennedy Space Center is letting the public see wreckage from the Challenger and Columbia shuttles after keeping it from view for decades. Two pieces of debris from each lost shuttle and personal reminders of the astronauts killed in the flights will be on display. The AP reports: " NASA's intent is to show how the astronauts lived, rather than how they died. As such, there are no pictures in the 'Forever Remembered' exhibit of Challenger breaking apart in the Florida sky nearly 30 years ago or Columbia debris raining down on Texas 12 years ago. Since the tragic re-entry, Columbia's scorched remains have been stashed in off-limits offices at the space center. But NASA had to pry open the underground tomb housing Challenger's pieces — a pair of abandoned missile silos at neighboring Cape Canaveral Air Force Station — to retrieve the section of fuselage now on display."
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Challenger, Columbia Wreckage On Public Display For First Time More

Challenger, Columbia Wreckage On Public Display For First Time

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  • Rest in Peace, Brave Souls (Score:4, Insightful)

    by A10Mechanic ( 1056868 ) on Sunday August 02, 2015 @02:33PM (#50235311)
    I too like to remember those who have given the ultimate sacrifice in the quest for scientific achievement, but I have no desire to go look at the coffin. I'd rather watch a nice Imax movie of a shuttle floating over the horizon.

    • Re: (Score:1, Interesting)

      by MobSwatter ( 2884921 )

      I too like to remember those who have given the ultimate sacrifice in the quest for scientific achievement, but I have no desire to go look at the coffin. I'd rather watch a nice Imax movie of a shuttle floating over the horizon.

      Plenty of sacrifice went on before the shuttle came into the picture. The original JFK space program never included a really big gas can with a glider strapped to it. Interesting idea if not an excellent engineering feat but it never included efficiency so it had to carry a lot of fuel to get up there on a fully automated launch and structurally was only designed for a glide style descent into the atmosphere which didn't give a lot of choices in landing it. JFK's short list guys was better.

      • If the shuttle program included a "gas can with a glider strapped to it", then the Apollo program was a tin can with a stack of gas cans under it. The comparison still doesn't work, because your "glider" had main engines of its own. It just didn't need or use them in the landing. I don't understand why you think a reentry vehicle that had to drop in the ocean on parachutes is somehow better than one that can land on wheels.

        • The original JFK space program was aircraft style access to space and the last building block on that segment never made it any further than the SR-71 in 1964. I know, my grandfather was a short list guy.

          Their goal was to achieve 25,000 KMPH, which is escape velocity in the stratosphere. Let me tell you where I get my insight on this:

          My grandmother on my mother's side: Senior statistician on the X-15, worlds first variable thrust rocket.

          My great uncle Jack (Radar Man) on my father's side: CIA SR, OXCART w

  • has it really been nearly thirty years? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by ihtoit ( 3393327 ) on Sunday August 02, 2015 @03:02PM (#50235499)

    I remember that day as vividly as if it were yesterday, and how I cried for the Challenger Seven.

    • I remember that day as vividly as if it were yesterday

      On Venus, it was only a few weeks ago.

    • Re:has it really been nearly thirty years? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by dotancohen ( 1015143 ) on Monday August 03, 2015 @08:36AM (#50239489) Homepage

      I remember that day as vividly as if it were yesterday, and how I cried for the Challenger Seven.

      I was nine years old at the time, and I saw the smoke trail with the two SRB trails distinctively rising from the round BOOM cloud. I had written to NASA only a short time earlier, expressing my interest in becoming an astronaut. I still have the letter that I received back, shortly after the accident.

      You know what? I've cried a lot since then. We've had rocket attacks on my city, I've had friends killed on the road, by sniper, and by their own bad habits. I've come close two times that I remember vividly, once while my wife was pregnant with our first. Those fourteen brave men and women who were lost in the name of exploration deserve our respect, but not our tears. They knew what they were doing. They did it anyway. Cry over people who die young for no reason other than "I hate you" or "I'm stupid". Don't cry over the elderly who die, and don't cry over the brave who took their chance. Celebrate them instead.

      • We were off the coast of Jacksonville, FL doing engineering drills on the USS Koelsch (FF-1043) when the disaster happened. I remember watching a snowy picture of the launch on the mess decks.. Soon after we were "vectored" to the area off the coast of Canaveral and by using Helo's and smoke floats, we proceeded to collect the floating debris using our Captain's Gig and Whaleboat. I remember when that piece (the one on display) was brought on board. In total, we collected nearly 2500 LBS of debris from the

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