A very sad day.

Ronald Reagan expressed it all. And very well.
Enough said.

Thx for posting, remembering.

The two events that I will always remember where I was( and it isn't Zero's inauguration) is 9/11 and the Challenger tragedy.

"Freedom is a fragile thing and is never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not ours by inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation, for it comes only once to a people. Those who have known freedom and then lost it, have never known it again."

--- Ronald Reagan

Little wonder he was the greatest President in my lifetime. All the rest pale in comparison.

In college we studied the Challenger disaster in Organizational Behaviour. Just about every theme of every chapter in our OB textbook was represented in the disaster and the leadup to it: Groupthink, organizational and managerial structure, male-dominated industries, and the list went on. (it was 12 years ago...)

We watched plenty of clips from the mentioned Rogers Commission and one quote that came out of it that stayed with me. It was offered by one of Thiokol engineers, makers of the external fuel tank that eventually failed and caused the disaster. In the context of knowing that there was a problem with the O-rings that sealed the tank components and cold weather, the engineers squared off with management about delivery schedules to NASA. Perplexed, the engineer who was calling for more study of the problem told the commission that he was told, "for God's sake man, for one minute take off your engineer's cap and put on your management cap!"

I guess in a similar vein, that same sort of 'management thinking', ie, profits at any cost, has sort of led us to the current financial disaster.

Plus ca change...sigh

Only slightly OT - but there were lots of illustrious people on the Rogers Commission who investigated afterwards - including Richard Feynman.

If you haven't heard of him - check out some of his vids on YouTube - a profound thinker, and a wonderful human being.

After working on the Los Alamos project, RF became quite depressed and disillusioned after the war. He started to work on inconsequential physics problems that interested him. After seeing someone toss up a spinning plate in a cafeteria, he devised some mathematical formulas to describe its motion, long story short -> Nobel prize for physics.

Posted by: Indiana Homez at January 28, 2009 3:50 PM

Exactly so...

As a child of the space age, I still choke up when I see that video. I probably always will.

PhilM.
I was in Beria Kentucky when the challenger went down. Working for Parker Seal (a Division of Parker-Hannifin Corporation) at the time. The self-same company that manufactured the O-Rings that were supplied to Morton-Thiokol, out of Utah.
All I can remember is there was a top level alert telling all employees NOT to disclose any information to the media. Only after that were we informed that the Challenger had blown-up.
A very sad day indeed. The employees in Beria were the most dedicated I have ever seen. To have something like this happen and be blamed on their
ineptitude was crushing. Thank God the Company was ultimately absolved of all responsibility.