Twenty-five years ago, the world watched in horror as the space shuttle Challenger blew up before our eyes on that cold January 28,1986. Touched by the tragedy, a musician named Stephen Kay wrote a song within two days of the accident in tribute to the seven crewmembers who died. But he couldn’t find any way to get the song out to the public. “You have to remember that this was 25 years ago,” Kay wrote on his website. “There was no Internet to speak of (not like it is now); no YouTube, personal websites were in their infancy, no FaceBook or MySpace, no blogs etc. – none of those various avenues to release it yourself and promote it yourself.” So, the song was put on the shelf for nearly a quarter century. But recently, when Kay realized the 25th anniversary of the accident was approaching, he used every bit of modern technology he could to bring the song back to life, and created a video to go with it. This heartfelt, moving video has been a labor of love for Kay, to honor the brave men and women of Challenger Mission STS-51L.
See more information, including the lyrics, and links to download the song at no charge at the ChallengerTributeSong website.
Wow…1st to comment?
That seems to be a sad indictment of what we find important…
Anyway, come 28 Jan 2011, I will hoist a tear diluted mug of beer to those 7 brave souls. I remember the 1st launch of Columbia… The entire nation came to a halt to watch that baby light up. It was the most awesome sight ever…even in a classroom with a 20″ TV. Everyone of us hooped and hollared when she rose from the bonds of Earth…
By ’86 it was common place and launches were routine.
But young kids again were transfixed onto school tv’s as the 1st teacher out of 11,000 applicants, lifted off..
None of us really thought much about the complexity of the launches or the dynamics of flight at that speed…
Once Challenger cleared the tower, all the kids, I am sure, yelled again and THEIR teachers privately wished they were next in line.
All that changed 73 seconds into the flight.
I was in college when a buddy got word to me that she had exploded. We rushed to his home and watched the network news report on the incident for hours.
I cried then…. and I still do.
Those people… that program…. and the Columbia… were heroes to the nth magnitude.
We are a better world for their service, but we are much worse off without them..
To you brave souls… to you specifically, but not forgetting those lost before or since…
Cheers.
ohhh yeah, sorry to lapse out on the song… but it was exactly what they deserved. touching and told their stories.
Fly on Angels, fly on.