This week marks anniversaries for three tragedies for NASA and the United States:

• Apollo 1 – January 27, 1967  – a fire in their capsule during a test on the pad kills three Apollo astronauts:
  • Gus Grissom
  • Ed White
  • Roger Chaffee
• Challenger STS 51-L –  January 28, 1986 – leak in a seal between segments of a solid fuel rocket booster led to the failure of the vehicle during launch and the deaths of the crew members:
  • Francis R. Scobee – Commander,
  • Michael J. Smith – Pilot ,
  • Judith A. Resnik – Mission Specialist, Ellison S. Onizuka – Mission Specialist, Ronald E. McNair – Mission Specialist
  • Gregory B. Jarvis – Payload Specialist
  • Sharon Christa McAuliffe – Payload Specialist
• Columbia STS-107 – February 1, 2003 – damage from falling ice, which had built up on the top of the external tank, to a thermal protection panel  on the wing led to failure of the wing during re-entry and the deaths of the crew members:
  • Rick D. Husband – Commander
  • William C. McCool – Pilot
  • Michael P. Anderson – Payload Commander
  • David Brown – Mission Specialist
  • Kalpana Chawla – Mission Specialist
  • Laurel Blair Salton Clark  – Mission Specialist
  • Ilan Ramon –  Payload Specialist

Here is a sampling of articles and commentary about these events (I will be adding more as the week goes by):

• General:
  • NASA celebrates its fallen astronauts – Cosmic Log
• Apollo 1:
  • Apollo 1: The Fatal Fire – Space.com
  • The Tragedy of Apollo 1 – Lights in the Dark
• Challenger:
  • Twenty-Seven Years – Transterrestrial Musings
• Columbia:
  • The Columbia Disaster and Space Program Safety – Space Safety Magazine