Apollo 1, Challenger, and Columbia: Remembering NASA’s Lost Astronauts (2016) | Hacker News Reader

Apollo 1, Challenger, and Columbia: Remembering NASA’s Lost Astronauts (2016)

arstechnica.com

70 pointsTomte8 comments

On a lighter note, being curious why they italicized Challenger and Columbia but not Apollo 1, I found this, which I had not seen before: https://history.nasa.gov/styleguide.html

> Italics: All orbiter names should be capitalized [0] (e.g. Atlantis, Columbia, Discovery ). We also italicize lunar module and command module names (e.g. Eagle, Columbia, Odyssey, Aquarius). We do not italicize mission names (STS-44, Apollo 11). All ships should be italicized (e.g. the Hornet, the Enterprise). We do not italicize the names of probes and robotic spacecraft (e.g. Voyager, Cassini).

[0] I think "capitalized" is a typo here that should be "italicized".

Listen people. My first response was that of ambivalence.

Those who died should be remembered. I think of the apollo missions and I think of Gus Grissom, this man was a hero and there are few. This was a man who was not afraid to stand up and speak the truth.

We are in an era right now in which, we have more information available to us than ever, yet, standing up and questioning what we have been told to be truth, is met with significant resistance. We are taught things in school that are, without question, incorrect. We must remember those for sure, we must listen to them, follow in their footsteps of bravery.

Neil Armstrong made an amazing speech on the 25th anniversary of Apollo:

"There are great ideas undiscovered, breakthroughs available to those who can remove one of truth’s protective layers. "

If you ever get a chance, visit NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. Make sure you check out the tours offered. Watching these missions on television just doesn't really give you an honest perspective of the courage and effort it takes to hurtle into the darkness.

At the end of the tour you're taken to a place along the road in the facility where you observe a minute of silence next to a grove of trees, a tree for each astronaut who gave his life for the Space Program.

President Bush gave a moving address after the Loss of Space Shuttle Columbia.

https://history.nasa.gov/columbia/Troxell/Columbia%20Web%20S...

At Christmas they put white lights on all of the trees except for Pete Conrad's which gets red lights. At his funeral his crew mate Alan Beam said "Pete says that while he was here he was always the shortest astronaut, but he doesn't want his tree to be the smallest tree. Pete wants his tree to be special the most colorful tree because his motto is, When you can't be good, be colorful."

I also think it would be respectful to the women who died in the space programmes to edit "his life" to "their life".

Another great speech is the one written for Nixon deliver in case Apollo 11 failed: http://watergate.info/1969/07/20/an-undelivered-nixon-speech...

If I remember correctly, the hatch from Apollo 1 has just been put on display at a museum somewhere? Nice to hear that a poignant part of the disaster (the hatch design was completely changed after the accident to allow quicker crew egress) is being used as a reminder for current and future generations, rather than being buried in a silo somewhere.

Lies

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