Thousands of web publications informed their readers about a tragedy that happened, January 28, 1986; when Space Shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds after launch, killing its seven members crew. A tragedy that made the news all over the world back in 1986, an event remembered today all over again, through to the power of the traditional media, but more importantly, because of the social media.
You don’t “celebrate” such an event, you “commemorate” it. Now, with semantics in place, for those of you who want to relive those dark moments, the video at the end of this editorial provides the shocking feedback. The pain we experience watching the disaster is as strong today as it was back then… for some, perhaps stronger. It took the lives of seven American cosmonauts for NASA to progress beyond the limits of imagination, and the only consolation is that they didn’t die in vain.
“We can’t let the fear of failure stop us,” said today Bill Gerstenmaier, who now oversees NASA’s human space flight programs, in front of 250 people gathered at Kennedy Space Center’s Space Mirror Memorial. “Their sacrifice was a stark, brutal reminder that our knowledge, our technology, our science and our dreams are often paid for in the dearest possible way.”
Today, the web remembered as well. The Huffington Post published Readers’ most moving memories of the event. Bradenton published online reactions as well, in Herald readers, Facebook friends remember Challenger disaster… A number of Challenger-related queries dominated the trends, on both Google and Twitter – a clear sign that people still care, a clear sign that the heroes of January 28, 1986 will never be forgotten.