I can't believe it has been that long. Seems like only yesterday I was in 8th grade and watching the events unfold on TV that day.

RIP to that brave crew

Damn, I'm old. I was a junior for the Challenger disaster.

I still remember the three astronauts killed in a capsule fire on the ground while training for an Apollo mission.

I was very young but still remember it on the news on an old B&W.

No they still do it.

My best friends wife is an engineer at JSC (Johnson Space Center). They've been to several launches.

Those people are at the VIP viewing center next to the Saturn V exhibit at Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island

About 3 miles from Pad 39A.

Have you ever seen a Saturn V rocket close up?

Amazing what engineers and scientists can come up with.

Several stories high and nothing but fuel with a little tiny capsule on top.

Mercury rockets by comparison look like little toys.

I watched a documentary last night on this and what is sad is that a lot of engineers were extremely worried about the damage to the shuttles wing from the foam piece hitting it during take off, and even though they tried to tell the people in charge, it was ignored.

Nobody believed a small piece of foam could put a hole in it until they replicated it after the fact.

If those astronauts were to do a space walk to check the damage of the wing, they could've attempted to dock with the next shuttle up and came back alive, but some people at NASA got lazy.

columbia didn't get as much run because we had just lost thousands of american lives in 9/11 plus tons of body's coming home from the War in iraq/Afganistan.

Just proves there are idiots at all levels. They think they are so smart that they don't have to listen to other smart people.

"And this is the best that you c - that the-the government, the *U.S. government* can come up with? I mean, you-you're NASA for cryin' out loud, you put a man on the moon, you're geniuses! You-you're the guys that think this shit up! I'm sure you got a team of men sitting around somewhere right now just thinking shit up and somebody backing them up! You're telling me you don't have a backup plan, that these eight boy scouts right here, that is the world's hope, that's what you're telling me? "

You are too young.

Been there done that. I have also seen the Russian stuff. Also have seen some of the Chinese stuff as well. Also have seen American astronauts doing their stuff in the pool in Houston. I went to 25th anniversary of the space camp at the Kansas Comosphere I was the only oldest classment to make it not in age but when I went. My brother was the the second for that weekend.

We went to a shuttle launch, like got special passes and stuff that let us be relatively close to the launch just a year or so before this happened. It is an absolutely breathtaking sight. I wish I could remember which shuttle it was that launched....

And now it's been 20.

RIP Columbia crew.