Michael J. Smith (Pilot)
Francis R. Scobee (Commander)
Judith A. Resnik (Mission Specialist 1)
Ellison S. Onizuka (Mission Specialist 2)
Ronald E. McNair (Mission Specialist 3)
Gregory B. Jarvis (Payload Specialist 1)
Sharon Christa McAuliffe (Payload Specialist 2)
5, 4, 3, 2, 1... Lift off !
The 10th flight of the Space Shuttle Challenger
and the twenty-fifth space shuttle
mission.
The Challenger had been launched from Pad 39-B at 11:38 a.m. EST.
Hopes ran high as many
were lined outside to watch the Challenger.
The lift-off was being watched live on
television
for those who couldn't make it to the Kennedy Space Center.
As the Challenger climbed
higher and higher
something that wasn't expected occured.
73 seconds after lift-off the
Space Shuttle Challenger exploded,
killing all 7 crew members.
The United States was devistated.
This was to be one of the greatest missions ever.
So what really happend?
Many
factors contributed to the explosion of the space shuttle.
The temperature was 36°F at the launching site.
After the Solid Rocket Boosters aka SRB were
ignited
a loud thundering noise was heard.
Pictures and video showed black smoke coming from
the
bottom field joint of the right Solid Rocket Booster.
That suggested that an O ring was being burned.
At 58.8 seconds after lift-off a small flame could be seen on the SRB
with enhanced film
a few
seconds later it could be seen without enhandced film.
More time passed by the flame grew bigger
and the SRB was begining to rotate freely.
In less than 2 seconds the Space Shuttle Challenger
exploded.
The Challenger was at a height of 46,000 feet when it exploded.
The white vapor coming from the explosion
was a mixture of oxygen and hydrogen.
The last
time the Challenger had contact with NASA,
was at 73.62 seconds after launch.
The main cause of
the explosion consisted of two things.
First the cold weather.
Secondly failure of the aft joint seal in
the right SRB. It was a sad day for NASA and for all of America the day the Challenger exploded. This tragic event will remain in the hearts and minds
of everyone who saw it, forever.
Holocaust
I could never fully go in depth about the Holocaust
there were too many concentration camps, people
killed, etc.
So instead I'll give you a brief summary
and add links at the bottom.
The
Holocaust is one of the single most cruel acts
ever commited in History and because of one
man, Adolf Hitler.
Hitler was a dictator of Germany for 12 years.
He told the German people, " is not only a right but also a duty. Our policy is "divide and conquer."
Not much is known about his family.
Existing records indicate that a number of his ancestors
were weak physically or abnormal mentally.
His dream was to have a master race.
He hated well-educated people.
He wanted power only so that he could rule other people.
Many people followed him as if he were a god.
Many of his Henchmen thought of
Hitler as their savior,
when in reality he was an evil man brainwashing his country.
The 3rd. Reich is
a good example of how easily people
can become brainwashed, into following one man without thinking of
consequences.
The Nazi genocide of millions of Jews
is the single worst tragedy in History.
The only way to prevent
something like this from ever happening again
is to educate people on the subject and stop the hate.
Being predjudice, and insensitive to other people
and their religions, race, etc...needs to stop.
If we educate our children and ourselves now it will be prevented from ever happening again.
Many Jews were sent to Concentration camps or Ghettos,
where they were told that their families
and themselves would be together.
They didn't know that they would possibly never see one another
ever again.
One of the best known to die from the Holocaust, was Anne Frank.
Her father,
the only survivor of the family found her diary,
which has now become a book, movie, and Broadway
play.
One of the most famous living is Corrie Ten Boon.
She has written books, made a movie about her life
and is an example for many Christians today.
6 Million Jews died because of one evil, greedy man.
In all 12 million people were murdered.
A
sensless tragedy all because of hate and greed.
For More information....
http://remember.org
The Holocaust Memorial Resource and Education Center
The Holocaust: Humanity's Darkest Hour
Titanic
The Ship of Dreams or so it was called.
Titanic one of the most highly publicized tragedies as of late.
Titanic became the worst Maritime disasters in history.
The RMS Titanic was designed and
manufactured by
the White Star Line Company.
Titanic was meant to be their greatest
accomplishments.
It weighed over 46,000 tons.
Titanic set off from Southampton on its maiden voyage
to New York
carrying over 2,200 people on April 1912.On April 14th., at approximately 11:40 p.m.
the
Titanic struck an iceberg.
After ignoring many ice warnings this was bound to happen.
Shortly after
the boat hit the ice,
they began loading women and children into lifeboats.
Many people have stated that the 3rd. class
passangers were locked away,
so they couldn't get into life boats with the first class women.
Many men
managed to make their way into the life boats
as the great Titanic was sinking.
Unfortunately, there
weren't enough lifeboats for everyone.
Infact, there were only enough for less then half.
As they
started lowering the lifeboats, many were less then half full.
Captian Smith reportedly had went below
and asked the Marconi operators
to send a distress signal of 'CQD', which was S.O.S.
The Californian though no more than a few miles away
never responded because their
Marconi operator was offduty.
Tragedy could have been avoided and the lives of many people
could
have been saved only if they heard the distress call.
And if there had been enough life-boats aboard this so called unsinkable ship.
The ship sank
two hours and a few odd minutes after the crash.
Many people froze to death in the icy waters of the
Atlantic.
At approximately 2:20 a.m. on April 15, 1912,
the R.M.S. TITANIC had completely
disappeared into the Atlantic Ocean.
A total of 1,513 people died that night.
Many lifeboats could
have gone back,
but passengers feared they would be overturned and over crowded.
Only 2 out of
18 boats went back.
At dawn the Carpathia finally reached the survivors in life boats
and
brought them aboard their ship.
At 8:00 a.m. the last survivor was brought into the boat
Second Officer
Charles H. Lightoller.
April 15,1912, the TITANIC
once the Ship of Dreams had become the Ship of
Nightmares.
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life
for his friends.
(John 15:13)
Fairfield- flight 227
An amateur rugby team from Uruguay chartered the Fairchild flight
along with 25, family members and
friends headed for
Santiago, Chile on October 12, 1972.
At approximately, 3:31 p.m., the plane crashed
into the Andes Mountains.
Some were killed on impact others were forced to fight the bitter cold
and
seek shelter in the fuselage of the plane.
After the initial crash there were only 32 survivors.
The
number of survivors decreased rapidly.
After the plane crashed, a search was formed
by the people
of Uruguay, Argentina, and Chile.
For eight days the search continued
until the search parties figured
that the pilots had miscalculated their position.
The mountains had a substantial amount of snow,
the
roof of the plane was also white.
There was a faded hope with the search party that
any of the 45 passengers and crew members
could have even survived the initial crash.
So the search
was called off.
The survivors went threw many untold horrors.
Unfortunately, they had to ration what little food they had
and when they thought they were being rescued
the ate all the
food, and drank all the wine.
The only way for them to survive,
would be to eat the passengers who
had already passed away.
People shouldn't look at this as an act of canibalism,
but a means to survive.
Could you have done any better?
Could you have found a way to get food and stay warm?
Put yourself in their place.
They did what they had
to do in the situation,
which that had been forced upon them.
Many of the survivors were teenagers
or young adults.
After the plane crashed there had were a few avalanches.
One
went threw the opening in the fuselage
and buried most of the survivors.
Though some began to dig
their way out
the number of survivors went down again.
8 people died the night of the avalanch
leaving only 19 survivors.
3 others died later from sickness and other complications.
Out of 45
passengers only 16 survived.
Many attempts to get off the mountain were made.
They would set out in small
groups
searching for the tail of the plane to find batteries for a radio.
Nando Parado, Roberto
Canessa, and Antonio Vizintin set out
to get off the mountain by walking to the nearest town.
Eventually Nando and Roberto would send Antonio "tintin"
back to the plane so they could have more
food.
Ten weeks after the plane crashed
a Chilean peasant who was out tending his cattle saw the
two men.
The men made gestures and fell to their knees,
but the peasant walked away afraid they
may be terrorist.
The men were still there when he returned the next day.
The man threw
across the bank of a river a paper and pen
wrapped up in a hankerchief.
One of the men picked up
the paper and pen and wrote
"I come from a plane that fell in the mountains.
I am Urguayan...".
After being trapped in the mountains for 71 days
all 16 survivors were rescued.
1906 Earthquake
April 18, 1906, at precisely 5:12 a.m.,
San Francisco was hit by a major earthquake.
Its magnitude was between 7.7 and 7.9.
At least 700 lives were lost and over $400 million dollars
in damage.
The quake rocked cities along the San Andreas fault
and it only took between 45 to 60
seconds to do that much damage.
The earthquake was felt from
Southern Oregon, Los Angeles and even central Nevada.
Extensive research was done on the death toll.
It rose to
approximately 3000,
which was caused either directly or indirectly by the quake.
The population at
that time of San Francisco was 400,000.
225,000, people where left homeless.
There were 28,000,
buildings destroyed.
Soon after the quake, the fires began to break out
which contributed to the
damage and loss of life.
The precise site of the earthquake was said to of had happend
300km from
near San Juan Bautista to Point Arena.
© 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004
jleecarr@yahoo.com
Some of the information,
courtesy of my daughter Tracy.
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