Daily writing prompt

What major historical events do you remember?

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It was 1986 and I was in 4th or 5th grade if memory isn’t completely failing me. On that January 28th, I vaguely remember the events of that day. I didn’t have many friends and practically lived in my own little world. I didn’t really pay a lot of attention to the news at that age.

Anyway, I knew there was going to be a space shuttle launch and the first teacher was going to go into space. This was a big deal and there was excitement about it.

For those that aren’t familiar with the space shuttle Challenger, the launch ended in tragedy. The shuttle exploded and much to my surprise many years later, I learned some of, if not all, the astronauts actually survived the explosion but the cockpit part of the shuttle landed in the water and they couldn’t escape.

I don’t remember much about that day. I can’t remember if we actually saw the launch on TV but I do remember hearing about the shuttle exploding. As a 8 year old, naive to current events and news, I didn’t know how to process it. What did that mean? Did the astronauts survive? I didn’t understand what happened.

I wish I could remember that day because looking back it was a sad day for NASA. I wish I could remember what my 8 year old self felt and how the rest of the day went. Wish I could find that DeLorean and go back in time.

Unfortunately, another shuttle disaster happened many years later involving the space shuttle Columbia. The shuttle disintegrated re-entering Earth. It wasn’t long after that, the space shuttle program was decommissioned.

Space trave has its risks and these brave astronauts that go into these crafts and into space are admirable. I hope I live long enough to be able to travel to space commercially. Maybe I’ve been watching too much Star Trek or Star Wars. It would be cool to go into space and see Earth along with the moon.