It’s forty years to the day since the Challenger Space Shuttle exploded 73 seconds into its flight, killing all seven crew members.
Among that crew was Sharon Christa McAuliffe, the first
teacher to fly into space. She was shortlisted from more than 11,000
applicants… also on that shortlist was singer-songwriter John Denver, who got
as far as the NASA induction programme. When Denver saw what happened on January
28, 1986, he was inspired to write this tribute…
Well, I guess that you probably know by now
I was one who wanted to fly
I wanted to ride on that arrow of fire right up into heaven
And I wanted to go for every man
Every child, every mother of children
I wanted to carry the dreams of all people right up to the
stars
They were flying for me
They were flying for everyone
They were trying to see a brighter day for each and everyone
They gave us their light
They gave us their spirit and all they could be
They were flying for me
They were flying for me
Although he survived the Challenger disaster, John Denver died 11 years later when his own home-built light aircraft crashed into Monterey Bay, California.
Denver isn’t the only songwriter to have been affected by
what happened to Challenger. Frank Turner was only four years old in 1986, but
seeing the accident on TV had a profound effect on him. Many years later, he
would imagine hearing Christa McAuliffe’s final broadcast (there is speculation
that the crew didn’t die when the explosion happened on board the spaceship,
only when it crashed into the sea) over the ham radio he’d played around with
as a kid. A “silent key” is the term used by amateur radio enthusiasts to refer
to deceased radio operators.
This is one of my favourite Frank Turner tunes. The more I
listen to it, the more it breaks my heart.
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