Category Archives: space accidents

space accidents, space exploration

Days of Remembrance for Space Exploration

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 Gus Grissom’s Words Still Ring True

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A memorial to fallen astronauts left on the Moon by Dave Scott and James Irwin during Apollo 15. It honors 14 astronauts who had died by that time and remains as a reminder of the astronauts aboard Challenger, Columbia, and others who have lost their lives during space exploration and training. Courtesy NASA.

Space exploration has its calendar of successes…and failures. Late January and early February each year mark the sad anniversaries of three major U.S. space missions that ended tragically with loss of astronaut lives. They commemorate the loss of the crew in the Apollo 1 fire on January 27, 1967, the Challenger mishap and seven lives lost on January 28, 1986, and the breakup of Columbia upon reentry and the loss of astronauts on February 1, 2002. Each one taught NASA tough lessons and forever proved Gus Grissom’s prophetic words right: “If we die, we want people to accept it,” he said. “We are in a risky business, and we hope that if anything happens to us, it will not delay the program. The conquest of space is worth the risk of life.”

His words came true not very long after he said them, underlining the fact that going to space is not easy.

The Loss of Life in the Pursuit of Space Exploration

The U.S. isn’t the only country to experience space tragedies. The Soviet Union lost a cosmonaut to a parachute failure in 1967 and three cosmonauts in 1971 when they asphyxiated on the way back to Earth after a mission. Those were serious blows to their space program, and details about what happened took a long time to come out.

Ground-training tragedies also struck the U.S. and Soviet Union. Apollo 1 was one such incident. There were also aircraft crashes that killed a number of astronauts in the U.S. and Soviet Union. One tragedy involved a fire in a pressure chamber. In each one, technical hubris came back to haunt the space program. It led to the mishaps that took people’s lives during space missions. That’s the nature of technology; it serves us well when we use it right. But, if we take shortcuts or cut costs or overlook possible problems, technology can come back to bite us in ways that we will never forget.

It Will Happen Again

It’s almost a certainty that others will die in space mishaps in the future. Loss is a part of the way forward, unfortunately. Space exploration is not an easy task. The technologies involved can fail, be sloppily built, or simply not be up to the task we thought they could. Moon missions, orbital missions, Mars trips, it doesn’t matter. It will happen. What defines us is our reaction to the next Challenger or Columbia or Apollo 1. 

The painful evaluation after the fact defines who we are as space-faring civilizations. It doesn’t really matter whose space agency it happens to; it could be China or the U.S. or Russia or the Europeans or the Indians. The point is, these things will happen. Each agency will need to be honest about what happened so that future accidents don’t happen for the same reasons.

Knowing EXACTLY what happened and why is the ticket forward. It will help the next astronauts who put their lives on the line. Whether they are headed out to build a colony on the Moon, mine an asteroid, or set foot on the Red Planet, it’s the least we can do.

For those interested in learning more about the men and women who have given their lives in pursuit of space exploration, read the book “Fallen Astronauts,” by Colin Burgess and Kate Doolan. It’s a somber, well researched book and worth the time to read.

columbia, space accidents, space shuttle

Remembering Space Shuttle Columbia

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The Loss of an Orbiter

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The crew of STS-107, lost when space shuttle Columbia broke apart during re-entry on February 1, 2002.

It’s a hard thing to think about — the loss of a space shuttle. They are graceful, flying machines and for one to fall out of the air on a bright February morning is a tough thing to remember. The third of NASA’s space-related tragedies occurred on February 1, 2002, when space shuttle Columbia was destroyed as it returned to Earth. With the loss of those astronauts aboard, our country once again paused to mourn people who risked their lives in the pursuit of space exploration.

Exploration is the Most Appropriate Tribute

Although it has been a decade and a half since the Columbia tragedy, it’s still clear in many people’s memories. Just as the Challenger explosion and the Apollo 1 fire have been for even more decades. Nobody said going to space was ever easy. Heck, just exploring our planet was (and is) difficult and people risked their lives to do that and continue to do so. Yet, we don’t stop mountain climbing or flying or trekking or visiting the ocean depths. We pick ourselves up and keep on going.

It’s the same with space exploration. Space agencies around the world continue the exploration of space in whatever way they can. In the U.S., we see new launch vehicles being tested and used, and in the future, there will be more. And, all those methods employ people in good jobs, which is a plus, as well. On the science side, every mission sent to the planets, to orbit our own to explore the cosmos, pays back dividends in knowledge that helps us understand the universe. Of course none of this is easy, and when there is a tragedy, every space agency investigates, makes changes, and keeps on going. That’s the nature of the business.

It’s a good thing to celebrate the lives of those who are lost exploring space, no matter where in the world they come from or which space agency they worked for. They died doing something for the rest of us, and our ongoing exploration of the universe is the best tribute we can make in their memory.