2006: T-plus twenty years...

President Ronald Reagan
January 28th, 1986

Twenty years ago today
11:38 A.M.

"T-minus ten... nine... eight... seven... six... we have main engine start... four... three... two... one... and liftoff, liftoff of the twenty-fifth space shuttle mission and it has cleared the tower."

"Houston, Challenger roll program."

"Roger; roll, Challenger."

        Early in the morning sunlight
        Soaring on the wings of dawn
        Here I'll live and die with my wings in the sky
        And I won't come down no more

"Good roll program confirmed. Challenger now heading downrange...  Engines beginning throttling down now at ninety-four percent; normal throttle for most of the flight, a hundred-and-four percent...  We'll throttle down to sixty-five percent shortly...

        Higher than the birds I'm flying
        Crimson skies of ice and fire
        Borne on Wings of Steel, I have so much to feel
        And I won't come down no more

"...Engines at sixty-five percent.  Three engines running normally.  Three good fuel cells.  Three good APUs...  Velocity twenty-two-hundred-fifty-seven feet per second.  Altitude 4.3 nautical miles.  Downrange distance three nautical miles...

        Sail on, sail on
        I will rise each day to meet the dawn
        So high, so high
        I've climbed the mountains of the sky
        Without my wings, you know I'd surely die
        I found my freedom flying high
        I've climbed the mountains of the sky

"...Engines throttling up; three engines now at a hundred-and-four percent."

"Challenger, go at throttle up."

"Roger; go at throttle up... uh-oh--"

"One minute fifteen seconds.  Velocity twenty-nine-hundred feet per second.  Altitude nine nautical miles.  Downrange distance seven nautical miles...

        Floating on a cloud of amber
        Searching for the rainbow's end
        Earth so far below me; I'm here alone
        And I won't come down no more

"...Flight controllers here are looking very carefully at the situation; obviously a major malfunction...  We have no downlink..."

"We have a report from the flight dynamics officer that the vehicle has exploded.  Flight director confirms that.  We are looking at checking with the recovery forces to see what can be done at this point..."

Seven Ordinary People

    Francis R. Scobee, commander
    Michael J. Smith, pilot
    Judith A. Resnik, mission specialist
    Ellison Onizuka, mission specialist
    Ronald E. McNair, mission specialist
    Gregory Jarvis, payload specialist
    Christa McAuliffe, teacher in space

Seven ordinary people, possessed of extraordinary skill, determination and courage, striving together to forge another link to humanity's future...and paying the ultimate price to achieve a goal larger than themselves.

As long as we hold fast to the hope of a better world for ourselves and for those who come after us, then triumph may yet be wrested from the wreckage of disaster.

As long as we hold forth these seven as examples to be emulated, then our children will learn that heroes are born within each of us.

As long as we strive to the same ideals they exemplified, then these honored dead will live on in our hearts and minds.

As long as we remember....

...the mission continues.