Yesterday (January 23) was NASA’s Day of Remembrance (https://www.nasa.gov/dor/) commemorating the lives lost in the Apollo 1 fire in 1967, the Challenger explosion in 1986, and the Columbia disaster in 2003.
I was in elementary school at the time of the Challenger explosion located just a few miles away from Mission Control, and though we were not watching live, we all filed into the common room to watch the news on the television once the explosion had happened and word had spread to the teachers (the inclusion of the “civilian” teacher, Christa McAuliffe, on that launch struck many deeply as we could identify her with people in our lives personally). When Columbia burned up on re-entry, I was employed at Johnson Space Center as a Safety and Mission Assurance Engineer, not responsible for shuttle vehicle safety (I oversaw internal ISS systems supporting crew health), but I knew and interacted with those who were. I participated in a very small way in the investigation into that event and still keep a copy of the final report on my bookshelf. I had seen one or two of the Columbia astronauts in meetings but not interacted directly with them.
One common lesson emerged from each of these events: we could do better. When risk was abstract, we accepted it, we put on a brave (or sometimes cavalier) face, we were more optimistic than our data could justify. Afterwards, we saw mistakes, we found our skepticism and critical thinking skills again, and we resolved to not let ourselves be led astray. These outcomes were not inevitable, even as human space exploration remains filled with hazards that we struggle to mitigate. The causes of the actual losses of life in these events were all squarely under our control.
Beyond those general lessons, what sticks with me personally is this: we read the stories of these astronauts and laud their bravery and sacrifice; we empathize with their families and the loss of a spouse, parent, friend, child, or colleague; we invest millions of dollars to reduce the chance that something like this happens again, and we judge the cost to be worth it. Over 5,000 Americans died on the job in 2023, and those losses impacted their families and friends and coworkers and organizations just as severely, yet we are unlikely to have the chance to hear their stories and extend our empathy to their friends and family, and we will not invest millions of dollars in ensuring their fate is not repeated. Honestly, we lack the resources necessary to do that even as wealthy as we are, but this remains true: we could do better.
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