End of the Space Shuttle Era

I grew up with the Space Shuttle program. I remember the first shuttle being named after the Starship Enterprise of Star Trek (TOS). I remember watching the first Shuttle fly piggyback atop a 747. I remember the general excitement of just having a national reusable spacecraft.

I also remember where I was when the Challenger disintegrated after liftoff. I was in the library of my hometown’s community college, (where I was in my first year of college courses), studying between classes. The library had a TV tuned to the Shuttle liftoff, and I took a break from my books to watch it. The liftoffs were pretty routine by then, but they were still new enough to be interesting even to the general public. Plus, this Shuttle mission had the first civilian on board: teacher Christa McAuliffe. So there was a little more media coverage than normal.

There were about half a dozen of us gathered in front of the TV, (students and at least one of the library staff), as the count down reached zero. We watched the Shuttle blast off and start its trip to space. I think a couple of us clapped quietly. And then the “explosion.” We six stood there stunned for a long while, and other students and staff slowly joined us while the news anchors talked about what happened.

Eventually I broke away from the TV to go on to my trigonometry class. I was late, but walked in and took a seat quietly. One of my classmates, I knew was a science geek, (as I was somewhat), so I wrote a note and passed it to him. “The Space Shuttle exploded,” it said. After he read it, he turned to me with a confused expression. Then he passed the note to another student, and it made its way around to four or five others who would be interested. As soon as the professor ended the class, they all turned to me and asked what happened.

As time and missions went on, the Space Shuttle program seemed to become nearly as routine as normal departures and landings at the airport. I still took interest in some missions, here and there. Having grown up with it as an exciting piece of national culture, the Space Shuttle owns a notable nostalgic part of my heart. And I’m sad to see it end.

Bullgrit