I just finished reading an article over at MSNBC in which James Oberg recaps the top 7 myths about the Challenger shuttle disaster. Now, I'm not sure about the rest of you, but the Challenger disaster has always been one of those moments of my life that I can recall with complete clarity. Despite the fact that I was only about 5 years old at the time - yes, I'm that young - I remember it like it was yesterday... or so I thought before reading Oberg's article. The following is how I've always remembered that event, or rather disaster, to have happened:

As I said before I was around 5 years old then, and so I was at home with my mom that day. Being such a young boy, I still had dreams of growing up to be an astronaut (or super hero, cowboy, sports star, etc...) someday, so the Challenger launch was a huge deal for me. My dad had even come home from work that day so he could watch the launch with me. And he had even brought me a surprise... my very own Space Shuttle Challenger. In reality it was a huge cardboard box, but to a 5 year old boy, it was the perfectly shuttle. So, at launch time I was on the floor watching the live TV coverage through one of my shuttle's windows. I remember counting down, "T minus 10 minutes to launch..." and the whole bit. The launch itself was spectacular. So much smoke and fire, and all of the excitement. Truly an awesome sight. And then, in an instant the shuttle violently exploded [see myth #2] into a huge fire ball and shooting off in different directions. There I was, watching all of the chaos and confusion unfold on LIVE television with the rest of the nation [see myth #1]. It seemed impossible that this could happen. Space travel had become an almost routine exercise to most Americans, hardly news worthy. And now this all too common occurrence had gone horribly wrong. Reports later confirmed that the cause of the explosion was a faulty seal in one of the rocket boosters [see myth #4], and that the astronauts didn't have a chance to suffer as they were likely killed instantaneously [see myth #3].

So, as we look back on the 20th anniversary of the Challenger Shuttle Disaster, I agree with Oberg that we "need to take the time this week to remember what really happened, and especially to make sure their memories are as close as humanly possible to what really did happen."