25 years and one day ago, when I was nine years old, my parents frantically called me to see what was happening on TV.  It was the news, and they were showing footage of the Space Shuttle Challenger exploding on its way out of the Earth’s atmosphere.  It made a lasting impression on me, and was a sight I would never forget.  Yesterday was the anniversary of the Challenger disaster, but fewer people know that the day before was the anniversary of the Apollo 1 fire, in which an unfortunate set of design decisions (pure oxygen atmosphere, complicated door mechanism) left the three astronauts inside unable to escape from a rapidly spreading fire.

Over the last few days, a number of officials have issued statements in remembrance of these and other space disasters, which have been collected here at Universe Today:  http://www.universetoday.com/82916/challenger-25-years-later-statements-of-remembrance/