Today marks the 40th anniversary of a dark day indeed, the day the space shuttle Challenger exploded shortly after takeoff on January 28, 1986. And I have little to say about it today, for the simple reason that (against the better advice of my editor) I wrote about it last year, on the 39th anniversary of the disaster. Why? My urgency is explained well enough in the opening paragraphs:

We lost seven astronauts that day — the first time we had ever lost any in-flight, and the first in my lifetime. I have never forgotten the moment, even though I was only five years old; it was the first true national trauma I lived through. (It would not be the last.) I suppose I could have waited until the 40th anniversary next year to write this reminiscence, as my editor suggested this morning, but, then........

© National Review