Challenger Remembrance

(x = space)

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Challenger Remembrance

(28 January 1986)

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Today the Challenger

Exploded and took lives

Away

A dedicated crew was on board

One member was

Christa McAuliffe

And we remember her

Her lively presence

In the classroom

And elsewhere

Is missed

No one replaces her

No one replaces any of them

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No one replaces

Those lost in the fire

Of Apollo 1

Chaffee, Grissom, White

Those removed

From the living list

When Columbia crashed

Or cosmonauts elsewhere

(elsewhen)

Were killed

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Technology is risky

Advancement is risky

Discovery is risky

There might be

Something wrong with us

Or exploration is

The right thing to do

And we are right to do so

To explore

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C L Couch

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Photo by eberhard 🖐 grossgasteiger on Unsplash

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These Are the Voyages (28 January 1986)

These Are the Voyages
(28 January 1986)

Thirty years ago and less or
More, there was Apollo 1,
Challenger, and Columbia

Source and cause of death
In rising through the skies;
Reluctant, stubborn loss in

Exploration—first mission
To the Moon, first teacher
Into pace, and a flight we’d

Grown too used to thinking
Ordinary—limited and limitless,
We were reminded; now in

Vision foresworn and sworn
Again, these guard our flights
On toward all our heavens,

Treasuring what in dreams
Will be manifest—we in faith,
Voyagers relentless, we

Travel closer to our God of
Discovery, all of us tied now
In tribute sentinel sacrifice

 
(Note. Remember the first USA
Space shuttle? It was Enterprise)