Posted on Jan 17, 2024
This Day in History: The Space Shuttle Columbia explodes
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Edited 11 mo ago
Posted 11 mo ago
Responses: 2
I remember this too well. When I heard it on the radio I immediately thought of the poem by John Gillespie Magee, Jr.:
"Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, – and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of – wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air…
Up, up the long, delirious burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or ever eagle flew –
And, while with silent, lifting mind I’ve trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God."
"Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, – and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of – wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air…
Up, up the long, delirious burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or ever eagle flew –
And, while with silent, lifting mind I’ve trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God."
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MAJ Dale E. Wilson, Ph.D.
They used to play that at station signoff when I lived in California and TV stations shut down at midnight or 1 a.m.
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Sara Lucas
I was sitting in a class at methodist hospital in houston and the speaker just stopped speaking and covered her face with her hands.....
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LTC Trent Klug
MAJ Dale E. Wilson, Ph.D. The Portland stations did as well. Otherwise, I'd have never heard it.
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