It was 34 years ago, the Challenger disaster. Seven astronauts, including the first teacher in space perished before our eyes in what we thought was a picture perfect launch. It was a national tragedy, but in Houston it was also a personal one. So many of us worked with or lived as neighbors with these men and women who trained at the Johnson Space Center, the home and the command center of STS… the shuttle program.
As a news person, I met many, but it was on the International Committee of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo that I met fellow volunteer Ellison Onazuka. Oh, our international visitors to the Rodeo loved getting to hobnob with a bonafide astronaut. El and wife Lorna were a fun couple, ready to merge with the greater Houston community… parents like so many of our shuttle crews.
It all seems like yesterday… the Challenger 7 lost in the prime of their exploration of space and life itself.
Photo: Getty