‘Challenger: The Final Flight’
Netflix has a new, four-part docuseries that walks through the Challenger Space Shuttle disaster in an explanatory way while still being respectful of the tragedy of the event. It features a lot of interviews with NASA personnel, as well as heartbreaking accounts from the families of the astronauts who were killed. It’s really interesting and insightful; if you’re interested in the history of the United States’ space programs, or if you just don’t know much about what happened with the Challenger, this docuseries is well worth your time.
A broader societal question occurred to me while I was watching this. American history has no shortage of tragedies, but the ones people tend to obsess over and analyze endlessly (I’m thinking of JFK’s assassination, 9/11, the Challenger disaster, etc.) have something in common. They all feature people dying in violent, gruesome ways, on camera. It makes you wonder.
President Reagan's address to the nation in the aftermath of the explosion actually included a line that is one of my favorite quotes: “The future doesn’t belong to the fainthearted, it belongs to the brave.”