https://www.foxnews.com/lifestyle/this-day-history-jan-28-1986-space-shuttle-challenger-explodes-shocking-nationI was home on emergency leave for the funeral of my wife's grandfather (he'd raised her).
It was the first shuttle launch I had ever been able to watch on live TV.
A bunch of people should have gone to prison for that debacle and a couple should have been taken out and shot.
High Flight
by
John Gillespie Magee, Jr.
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air . . .
Up, up the long, delirious burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or ever eagle flew —
And, while with silent, lifting mind I’ve trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.
