I guess we all remember when the spacecraft Challenger exploded shortly after liftoff on January 28, 1986, killing all seven on board, including school teacher Christa McAuliffe. This was notable because she was the first American civilian selected to go into space. On November 10, 2022, a large portion of the Challenger space shuttle was found deep in the Atlantic Ocean near the Cape Canaveral, Florida coast recently by a History Channel documentary crew. The History Channel crew were not searching for the shuttle part but were looking for a World War II-era aircraft's wreckage when they stumbled upon a "large humanmade object" covered in sand. NASA believes the discovered portion is from the belly of the shuttle due square thermal tiles identified on the object. It's over 15 feet by 15 feet in size and was heavily covered in sand when discovered. The History Channel plans to air a documentary about the discovery on November 22 and posted a video on Twitter of the divers inspecting the wreckage. link
What a terrible day that was. I had gone home for lunch, made myself a sandwich, and turned on the TV to watch the launch. I don't think I ate a bite of the sandwich. I'll be interested to watch the documentary.
I was working at Plantation Chevrolet in Baton Rouge. My fellow employee and neighbor that was ride share for the two of us walked out to the parking lot and sat down and had our lunch with the radio on. I know it wasn't my car because the two of us would use our car every other week. I sat on the passenger side to eat so that is what makes me know it was the friends car. Not long after that we both quit because we were all starving to death. He went on to work for International Farm Equipment in New Roads just 8 miles from me. I left and moved to California to work a couple years and just locked the house up. I came back and visited him a few times at work but I went to work for a farmer. I once again left for good and was gone 14 years, before I could go see the friend to say hello he had died of cancer. I remember all our achievements in space and the most exciting day was John Glenn single orbit. It was uncharted territory and extremely dangerous,. all hard wired and tube fed electronics make for a very dangerous ride in space. I have one regret in life and that is I will miss the Mars expedition which will take place God willing.