Another Space Shuttle is gone.

I was a senior in high school when the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded on January 28, 1986. The news came during the five minutes between classes as I headed to Ms. Wendell’s chemistry class. I distinctly remember hearing the news as I crossed the Los Gatos High School basketball courts heading towards the small flight of stairs leading up to the science wing. A student, nameless in memory, he or she leaning against the upper wooden railing, shouted down the awful news to the scurrying masses.

Similar to September 11th (although lesser in magnitude), the reaction by the student body and everyone I knew at the time was one of abject horror and grief, another one of life’s tragic experiences that you are never prepared for, that had never been experienced by anyone before, and that you never fully forget throughout your lifetime.

Space Shuttle History

Space Shuttle Challenger (OV-099)
Photo courtesy of NASA

The first shuttle was a Main Propulsion Test Article (MPTA-098) called Pathfinder. Its purpose was to test out the procedures for moving and handling the orbiters. Designated in honorarium as OV-098, it was made of wood and steel, and was not capable of flight. Enterprise, the second shuttle, was used for suborbital approach and landing tests and did not fly in space.

The next shuttle to undergo construction, Challenger, began assembly by Rockwell International in November 1975, as a Structural Test Article (STA-099), and was created to run real-life intensive vibration tests to simulate the expected stresses of launch, ascent, reentry and landing. Construction was completed in February 1978, and in November 1979, the process of retrofitting Challenger began, with Rockwell contracted to convert it from a Structural Test Article into a fully rated Orbital Vehicle (OV-099).

Reengineering completed in July 1982, the shuttle eventually had its inaugural flight on April 4, 1983.

Construction on the fourth shuttle, Columbia (OV-102), also began in November 1975, arriving at Kennedy Space Center on March 25, 1979 to begin preparations for its first mission, eventually launching from Edwards Air Force Base on April 12, 1981, making Space Shuttle Columbia the first to fly into orbit.

Similarity of the Shuttles

At 73.124 seconds into Challenger’s tenth mission (51-L), the onset of the structural failure of the hydrogen tank led to a sudden thrust, pushing the hydrogen tank upward with 2.8 million pounds of force. The rest was history, caught on tape and broadcast on every television station for days on end, forever embedded into our unconscious — paralleling the visual impact that the more recent incident of passenger planes crashing into the World Trade Center on September 11th had.

Today, 15 days and 22 hours into the flight, while traveling at 12,500 miles per hour at approximately 200,000 feet over Central Texas (not the 200,000 miles as originally reported by CNN), Columbia also earned the dubious distinction of being the first landing casualty in 48 years of space flight history. Unfortunately for the memories of the latest seven astronauts lost in today’s diaster, the impact on our lives will be much smaller than that of the Challenger. The only visible evidence of this recent accident was streaming contrails of unidentifiable debris burning up in reentry, not shocking enough for today’s hardened viewing audience to evoke any long-lasting impressions.

None of the astronauts died in the initial explosions. In Challenger’s case, the crew were all alive and probably conscious until the culmination of the 165-second, 4.5-mile plunge into the water at 207 MPH. Columbia’s crew survived the initial break-up only to have their crew module break up a minute later.

The entire summary of mission STS-107 is currently succinctly and stoically summarized by NASA as “Crew and Vehicle lost during landing”.

My apologies, regrets, and well wishes go out to the families of astronauts Husband, McCool, Anderson, Chawla, Brown, Clark, and Ramon.

Author’s Note: Looking back (during a 2012 revision), it is interesting that many others continued to indicate that Columbia exploded “200,000 miles over Texas”, including Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee, Associated Press.

Photo © Richard D. LeCour

‘Tis the night before Christmas and all through the world
Families enjoy the sight of tinsel unfurled;
Pretty lights on trees; warm fires that are cozy;
The cold winter breeze making cheeks that are rosy.

I’ve spent hours this week in traffic and the mall,
The bustle and crowds, I get sick of it all.
I asked my teen daughter her favorite part,
“Of Christmas?”, she said. “Those dear to my heart!”

I expected her to say that it was presents received.
The truth is something I’d’ve never believed.
With kids these days saying “I want…” and “I need…”,
I expected an answer that reflected more greed.

Oh sure, there’s requests for xBox, and Playstation,
And plane tickets for a European vacation,
But the number one request on her Christmas list
Brought my and my wife’s eyes to a fine mist.

She makes loads of mistakes year in and year out;
Of the question of her listening I no longer have doubt.
Some of what we’ve said appears to have stuck,
By fortune or chance or even good luck.

In her own teenage words, she likes family the best.
In second, the presents, the food and the rest.
So if kids push you to the end of your rope,
Merry Christmas to all! The New Year brings hope!

Many women are apprehensive about their first mammogram, but there is really no need to worry. By taking a few minutes each day for a week before the exam and doing the following practice exercises, you will be prepared for the test. Best of all, you can do these simple practice exercises right in your own home.

EXERCISE 1:
Open your refrigerator door and insert one breast between the door and the main compartment. Have one of your friends shut the door as much as possible and lean heavily on it for good measure. Hold that position for five seconds. Repeat in case the first time wasn’t effective enough. Repeat for second breast. This exercise is most effective if you have a refrigerator/freezer combination with the freezer compartment on top.

EXERCISE 2:
Go into your garage at 3 AM when the temperature of the cement floor is just perfect. Open the garage door. Take off all your clothes and lie comfortably on the floor with one breast on the ground directly underneath the open garage door. Ask a friend to repeatedly close the heavy garage door on your breast until your breast is sufficiently flattened and chilled. Turn around and repeat for the other breast. If your garage door is equipped with linear optical or pressure obstruction safety sensors, disable them prior to testing. Many garage door openers will override the safety mechanisms if you simply hold down the close button on the wall. If you are unable to get the garage door to apply enough uncomfortable pressure, ask your friend to slowly roll back and forth over your breast while they are sitting on a bicycle with wide smooth tires, such as a beach cruiser.

Photo © Lucy Rose

EXERCISE 3:
Purchase a pair of handscrew wood clamps, or if you are running low on funds, visit your local high school’s woodshop and ask the instructor to have the students create a set of wood-and-bolt H-clamps (as pictured), selecting the heaviest and bulkiest of the lot. Make sure they are well sanded to avoid splinters. Wet them in the sink, and then store them in your freezer overnight. Ask a neighbor to tighten the clamps as hard as they can while you hold your breasts in place. At this third stage, it is important that you choose a neighbor who is more of a casual acquiantance than a friend. If you are unable to locate a neighbor, ask the high school woodshop teacher.

EXERCISE 4:
Freeze two metal bookends overnight. Strip to the waist. Invite a stranger into the room. Press the bookends against one of your breasts. Smash the bookends together as hard as you can. Repeat on your second breast. Set an appointment with the stranger to meet next year to do it again.

You are now properly prepared for your first mammogram.