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Memorial Day: In Memoriam

May 26, 2008 on 10:15 am | In Random Stuff |

There are wonderful things going on in Space Exploration these days, and we know an unprecedented amount about our planet, solar system, galaxy, and Universe as a result of all the exploration that we’ve done. In fact, that’s most of what I write about here. But another huge part of that exploration has been manned spaceflight, and we’ve learned a tremendous amount about ourselves and how we both relate to and depend on this world as a result of that.

But there’s been a cost, too. Being a NASA astronaut is dangerous, and there have been a number of accidents and crashes that have claimed the lives of NASA astronauts. Today, I’d like to remember some of the men and women who perished in these disasters.

This picture below is that of a T-38 Talon aircraft.

This was the world’s first supersonic jet trainer. It’s been in use by the military for nearly 50 years training pilots; it’s also the cheapest supersonic aircraft at only $756,000. There have been a number of fatal accidents involving this aircraft, including the following NASA astronauts and astronaut trainees:

  • Theodore Freeman was killed October 31, 1964 when a snow goose hit the canopy of his plane, causing fragments to enter his T-38 engines. He ejected, but he was at too low an altitude for his parachute to deploy properly. Theodore was the first NASA astronaut to die in the space program.
  • Charles Basset and Elliot See were killed February 28, 1966 when their T-38 crashed in St. Louis, MO. They were the prime crew for the Gemini 9 mission, dying just four months before they were to fly into space.
  • Clifton Williams was killed October 5, 1967 when his aircraft controls in his T-38 stopped responding. He crashed near Tallahassee, FL.

After the death of Clifton Williams, there were no training-related fatalities for nearly 20 years. However, there have been others who have been killed in aircraft accidents, including:

  • Stephen Thorne, killed May 24, 1986 as a passenger when a Pitts Special Aircraft crashed in Santa Fe, TX.
  • S. David Griggs, who was killed June 17, 1989 when a vintage WWII plane that he was flying crashed. He performed the very first unscheduled space walk as part of a satellite rescue on mission STS 51-D. He was scheduled to go back into space as a pilot of mission STS-33 in August of 1989.
  • Sonny Carter was killed April 5, 1991, in a commercial airliner crash while on official NASA business. He flew on the same STS-33 flight that David Griggs was slated to pilot, spending six consecutive days in space.
  • Patricia Robertson died on May 22, 2001 in Manvel, TX, as a passenger in an experimental aircraft conducting touch-and-go landings.

There are, of course, three much more famous NASA disasters that claimed the lives of many astronauts, and we should not forget those men and women, either.

On January 27, 1967, the American space program was preparing for the Apollo missions. In a training exercise for the Apollo 1 mission, astronauts Virgil “Gus” Grissom (Gemini 3), Ed White (Gemini 4), and Roger Chaffee (Mercury 4) were locked inside the module on the launch pad when a flash fire broke out inside the spacecraft. Unable to open the locks and escape in time, the three of them were burned alive. The Apollo program’s command module underwent a massive redesign after that, and there were no manned missions until Apollo 7 in October of 1968 (ironically, manned by the backup crew to Grissom, White, and Chaffee).

January 28, 1986. Do you remember where you were? I was in second grade. I remember how excited my teacher was (hi, Mrs. Goldring!) that a teacher, Christa McAuliffe, was going into space. And we all got to watch it on TV. It was an exciting moment. And then we started watching it, and I remember noticing the flames seeming to climb up the spacecraft, and I said something about it. (I always was a caller-outer.)

And as she was explaining that everything was normal, the shuttle exploded. We were all horrified. Everyone across the nation was horrified when they found out. We all know about the O-ring problem in the solid rocket boosters, but take some time today to remember the seven astronauts who lost their lives in this disaster. Remember, they didn’t die in that explosion, it most likely wasn’t until they hit the water beneath them that the impact killed them; another horrible way to die.

We have not forgotten you, Gregory Jarvis, Christa McAuliffe, Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Judith Resnik, Francis Scobee, and Michael Smith.

And finally, there’s the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, which burned up on re-entry.

A piece of foam insulation (nerf-like material) had broken off and struck the left wing well prior to re-entry. Although extremely light, the material was moving very quickly, and tests have shown that it most likely caused significant damage to the shuttle. The spacecraft began to disintegrate upon re-entry with the atmosphere, and it is unknown what the cause of death of the crew members was; whether they suffocated due to a lack of atmosphere or froze to death in the very high altitudes. At the time of the breakup, the shuttle was at an altitude of 203,000 feet (39 miles or 63 km), and was moving at about Mach 18 (13,000 mph or 20,000 km/hr).

All seven astronauts on board were killed. We remember you today, Michael Anderson, David Brown, Kalpana Chawla, Laurel Clark, Rick Husband, William McCool, and Ilan Ramon.

Space exploration is a wonderful research and development tool for humanity, and in a very literal way, has us reaching for the stars. But remember that in addition to its financial costs, there’s a very human cost as well. I’ll leave you with the words of the poet John Gillespie Magee, Jr., used by President Reagan to eulogize the Challenger crew:

We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and ’slipped the surly bonds of Earth’ to ‘touch the face of God.’


20 Comments »

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  1. Ethan, this is a touching tribute to the NASA astronaut fatalities in the line of duty. Note that there also have been several USSR/Russian cosmonaut deaths as well, as these pages describe:
    http://members.shaw.ca/kcic1/disasters.html
    http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question/history/q0114.shtml

    Comment by Brian — May 26, 2008 #

  2. Brian, that’s very true. The stories of Yuri Gagarin (the first human being in space) as well as the Soyuz 11 astronauts are some of the saddest that space exploration has to offer. Thanks for pointing out these sites.

    Comment by ethan — May 26, 2008 #

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  6. Thank you so much for this tribute. Indeed, knowledge about aircraft design, aviation, space exploration and related topics comes at a cost.

    Comment by IBIS Experimental Canard — September 15, 2008 #

  7. Thanks a lot for this tribute, my earliest space exploration memories date back to Apollo 7 and 8. If I close my eyes I can still ’see’ those b&w television programs that covered the entire missions from start to finish. Those were the days…

    Comment by Currency Trader — December 20, 2008 #

  8. WOW. I’ve wanted to be an astronaut ever since I was two years old. Currently I am only ten, but I want to inform you that this isn’t a dream, it’s a goal. I have the grades, the brain, and the fitness. Even though this information was brought to my attention, it will not change my mind. But thank you, and you must have gone through a lot to watch that teacher be killed in front of you. I already knew that traveling into unknown territories of the universe was dangerous, but I didn’t know how slow and painful you could die. If I were to die at a younger age, I would much rather be killed with NASA. I have been updated with NASA information for the last two years. About a couple of months ago I was surfing http://www.nationalgeographic.com and decided to look at a space discovery. It was said that there was a black hole playing the role of a portal, and was traveling across the universe. But, instead of a universe, meaning only one place, there was reason to believe that we live in a multiverse. I don’t remember much, with all this school, because I am an advanced student, I have skipped a grade and I am in advanced math, and have had strait As in every year. Oh, and I am not a nerd, or geek or whatever you want to call it. I am very good and skilled at tennis, and am very strong, and also am cool. HAHA. Maybe try to go to nationalgeographic.com and look up more, I’ll go now ant write down the address.

    Comment by Squirrel — January 1, 2009 #

  9. Instead of ant I meant and. sorry

    Comment by Squirrel — January 2, 2009 #

  10. Good for you, Squirrel! I’m glad you’re enjoying all of the space stuff out there; I find it fascinating too and I’m 30.

    If you’re serious about being an astronaut, you might want to check out the link up top to my friend Brian’s Astronaut Page — he’s going through the application process to try to become an astronaut and will find out over the next few weeks if he’s made it to the next round.

    And I don’t think it should change your mind. There’s danger in everything we do in life, but it’s no less important to get out there and live.

    Comment by ethan — January 2, 2009 #

  11. hello, all published reports indicate the challenger crew and columbia crew were likely disintegrated in the break-ups. you mentioned the challenger crew hit the water

    Comment by chris — March 30, 2009 #

  12. Chris,

    That’s true for the Columbia crew, but not for the Challenger crew, especially on more recent reviews of the evidence. It looks like they would have survived the initial explosion, and plummeted to their death, either roasting as they fell or dying upon impact with the water.

    Comment by ethan — March 30, 2009 #

  13. hi. my name is amin. i’m from iran. your website is wounderfull and thanke you for these details, i didn’t knew them before.

    Comment by amin — April 11, 2009 #

  14. Are astronauts real? I dont believe in them, and Im 49. I never met one. I need to know ASAP(Whatever that meens). By the way, if they are real, could you set me up with one.(prefrably male)

    Comment by Sheila — April 14, 2009 #

  15. YdUZxI

    Comment by Wqsahnsq — July 14, 2009 #

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