A morbid fascination with death?
Posted: Thu Jan 29, 2004 4:18 am
Three hills about the MER Spirit rover:
Chaffee Hill
White Hill
Grissom Hill.
All three were tragically burned and suffocated to death in Apollo 1 while ground testing the Command Module on top of the Saturn 5 stack. (Velcro caused a spark which ignited an inferno in the pure oxygen atmosphere)
Spirit Landing site now christened "Challenger Memorial Station".
We all remember how Challenger exploded some 40 seconds after liftoff on 28th January 1986 - exactly 18 years ago. Challenger was brought down by too-cold O-Rings in the solid rocket boosters manufactured by (then) Morton-Thiokol. The occupants of Challenger survived until the crew compartment hit the water, 7 minutes and 20 seconds after the orbiter and shuttle stack were destroyed. It's quite probable they were conscious the whole way down.
Now, is it me - or is NASA getting a bit morbid naming these places after dead astronauts and failed hardware?
Don't get me wrong - these men and women deserve our utmost respect and remembrance for the sacrifice they made, but what's wrong with naming some of these locations with living astronauts who walked on the moon for example?
The USA put 12 men on the moon, and yet I bet you guys can't, off the top of your heads, name more than 3 of them.
How about "JFK Knoll"?
Just Jokes!
Chaffee Hill
White Hill
Grissom Hill.
All three were tragically burned and suffocated to death in Apollo 1 while ground testing the Command Module on top of the Saturn 5 stack. (Velcro caused a spark which ignited an inferno in the pure oxygen atmosphere)
Spirit Landing site now christened "Challenger Memorial Station".
We all remember how Challenger exploded some 40 seconds after liftoff on 28th January 1986 - exactly 18 years ago. Challenger was brought down by too-cold O-Rings in the solid rocket boosters manufactured by (then) Morton-Thiokol. The occupants of Challenger survived until the crew compartment hit the water, 7 minutes and 20 seconds after the orbiter and shuttle stack were destroyed. It's quite probable they were conscious the whole way down.
Now, is it me - or is NASA getting a bit morbid naming these places after dead astronauts and failed hardware?
Don't get me wrong - these men and women deserve our utmost respect and remembrance for the sacrifice they made, but what's wrong with naming some of these locations with living astronauts who walked on the moon for example?
The USA put 12 men on the moon, and yet I bet you guys can't, off the top of your heads, name more than 3 of them.
How about "JFK Knoll"?
Just Jokes!