Nothing has stopped SpaceX from doing so. It's a private company after all.

Was in college and back at the dorm between classes. TV room was across the hall, maybe 5 or 6 people watching the launch. I heard a collective yell and moan and walked over.

I'd grown up around general aviation and was aware of how unforgiving that business is albeit in a "friends of friends" way, and seen some things when we lived in the Andes, so my first thought was a mixture of sadness and "Space is a legitimately dangerous sport. This is not a surprise." I worry that may sound cold, but there was sympathy for the dead and empathy for those who knew them.

On a more abstract level, I'd earlier turned down an architecture scholarship that I was told was in a long term plan to build shuttle support facilities at Vandy. I don't really know, but post Challenger those plans were scrubbed. Did applied math instea

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Reminds me of the hot young singles in my neighborhood, they actually turned out to be off planet as well.

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I'll never forget that day. I worked at NASA/Hangar AE, and my boss and I went out to watch the launch. We saw the smoke and glanced at each other; no words were necessary for both of us to know that a tragedy was happening. The mood among us was heavy for a long time. I could not watch the video for many years.

I believe you are describing something I have seen two times in the last year. It was even brought up on the NextDoor app as another neighbors saw it, described it and was shook-up over it (as I was…particularly my last siting of it). FYI I live in Denver CO.

Basically, what we both saw were 7-10 very light dots, almost too faint to see, moving at ridiculous speed in an arrowhead or similar formation. First time I saw it it was going south to north…then last time it was moving north to south. Absolutely no sound, no flashing lights, but insane speed. Took 15 seconds to traverse the entire sky. As a comparison, the ISS or a Starlink flyover takes at least 4-6 minutes.

It was most definitely NOT Starlink. I have thousands of hours stargazing and know one of those from a spy satellite from a Iridium Flare from a plane from spinning rocket debris, etc…this moved exponentially faster and in a completely different pattern than Starlink. I’ve seen 4 flyovers of those…and these couldn’t be more different. Every time I’ve mentioned it it’s the response I get as well….it’s something different.

The last time I saw it, about 6 weeks ago…for whatever reason the hair stood up on the back of my neck and I got choked up the second I saw it. That’s how impactful it was to me.

You don't sound loopy. You sound like you saw Starlink and didn't realize what it was. Search for "Starlink in the night sky" and see if that looks similar to what you saw.

Not really related, but i actually have seen a UFO before. Like 7 years ago in western Pennsylvania USA. I wasn't alone, so I have somebody to tell me I wasn't hallucinating lol. It was obviously not above the clouds and not what I would have expected from a UFO sighting, but don't get me wrong, it was absolutely breathtaking.

Same here. Must be something about 8th grade science. Mine always said her dream was to watch a shuttle launch at night in person and I always wonder if she ever got to.

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High probability of starlink. They are close together until separation, and there are also a lot of satellites in the sky nowadays. I rarely go out at night without seeing at least one

I agree with your general point, but would note that the pause after Apollo 1 was over eighteen months, not five. The fire took place in January of 1967; the next manned launch was in the autumn (October, I believe) of 1968.

They never would have given up after Apollo 1 because it was too important (at least symbolically and as a matter of global prestige) to get to the moon before the Soviets did.

Wouldn’t it be more like they died at the time the spacecraft immediately exploded?

contrary to KSP players' belief, rockets of that grade don't spawn in after a 5-minute loading screen

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I was in 6th grade. The week before, we’d all gathered in the gym of my small private Catholic middle school to watch a video about the launch and Christa McCauliffe. On launch day, I distinctly remember Sister Cecile, who was the principal of the school, sticking her head into the classroom and saying “the space shuttle… it blew up.”

meanwhile the soviets would crispy their cosmonauts and just keep launching

Good work with that photo (to have been taken with a phone camera)!.

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You underestimate humanity if you think the deaths of explorers will stop the exploration. Then again your OP comments include the ever so common misunderstanding that “space is so expensive and has nothing of value to offer”. Ought to look into what our space program did to boost our economy in the 30-40 years after we reached the Moon. It was hugely expensive but it turns out applied research into many broad reaching fields pays off long term. That’s what space exploration is, applied research. Which, so far, pays off more than it costs.