
Apollo 1, Challenger, and Columbia: Remembering NASA’s Lost Astronauts (2016) - Tomte
http://arstechnica.com/science/2016/01/apollo-1-challenger-and-columbia-remembering-nasas-lost-astronauts/
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ademarre
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](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".

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pgnas
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. "

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hourislate
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...](https://history.nasa.gov/columbia/Troxell/Columbia%20Web%20Site/Documents/Executive%20Branch/President%20Bush/president1.html)

~~~
ghswa
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".

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cyberferret
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.

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pgnas
Lies

~~~
sctb
As we've asked before, please comment civilly and substantively on HN or not
at all.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)

