They "Slipped the Surly Bonds of Earth"

Fresh off yesterday's 40th anniversary of the loss of the crew of Apollo I in a flash fire on the launching pad (look here and here for some thoughts), today is the 21st anniversary of the loss of the Challenger. I'm too young to remember the assassination of JFK or RFK, but I remember clearly sitting in the college cafeteria when a worker changed the sound system to news coverage of the loss of Challenger. Then the nation spent months learning all about O-Rings and Thiokol booster rockets, before shuttle launches resumed months later.

The History Channel has a brief retrospective of the disaster here.

Here is the text of the moving tribute that President Reagan offered that night.