BOULDER, Colo.—They huddled close against the unexpected cold, eager, even a little impatient, after numerous delays and full of the sense of being part of something bigger than themselves.
Three miles away from the launch pad, the ground shook under their feet and the air reverberated as the Space Shuttle Challenger lifted off on its 10th mission.
What happened 73 seconds later was horrifyingly clear to the millions of people watching on television. But for the six children from Boulder County—part of a group of teachers and students chosen by Ball Aerospace to see the launch in person—it was, at first, just confusing.
“It was so far away that the sound was just a ‘pop,'” said John Weller, then an 11-year-old student at Bear Creek Elementary School. “It looked odd, but we didn’t know what had happened. It didn’t sink in.”
There was an awful silence that seemed to go on forever, and then Weller remembers David Aguilar, one of the Ball representatives, saying, “They’re all dead. That was an explosion, and they’re all dead.”
Among the shuttle’s seven crew members were Christa McAuliffe, who was to be the first teacher in space, and astronaut Ellison Onizuka, a graduate of the University of Colorado. There is a memorial to him on campus containing a CU flag and football that he took into space. The items were recovered from the crash site.
The legacy of the Challenger explosion is burned deep into the consciences of those who were there, influencing the course of their lives.
Weller became a photographer and filmmaker whose work focuses on conservation of threatened ecosystems and ways of life.
“It’s not an active pain, but it is a driving fire in my life,” he said. “I’m doing work that celebrates the fragility of life. There is a humility in watching people you respect, your heroes, perish.”
After the explosion, after everyone had quietly gathered their things and after the long car ride back to the hotel, Weller took a long walk on the beach by himself and encountered a snowy egret that walked right up to him.
“It was a very profound moment, realizing that I was alive and how precious that was,” he said.
Bobbi Winterowd, also 11 at the time, said those who were together on the trip share a special bond. Many of them are still in touch, and she often finds herself calling the others around the anniversary of the disaster.
Now a project engineer for Lockheed Martin, she said she learned a valuable lesson from the tragedy.
“Life is short,” she said. “Grab hold of it, and enjoy it while you’re here.”
Because of that, she finds herself intensely conscious of finding balance between her life and her work. She’s passionate about what she does, but she doesn’t let it overshadow the rest of her life.
“It’s people who are important,” she said.
Winterowd believes the astronauts who lost their lives would want us to keep learning, exploring and stretching the limits of human knowledge. She worries when she hears people question the worth of the space program.
“I fear for a time when we’re not exploring space anymore,” she said. “That would be a great dishonor to their memory.”
Weller echoes those sentiments.
“It’s important that people remember, that they remember the astronauts and what they stood for,” he said. “They stood for exploration and for bringing the human experience to new levels of excellence. It’s something we all should strive for.”
———
Information from: Daily Camera,
