30 years ago today, NASA was forever changed. The U.S. space agency’s space shuttle Challenger launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Shortly after liftoff, with live cameras rolling, the shuttle broke apart and dropped Atlantic Ocean, killing all seven crew members. It was the celebrated U.S. space agency’s first inflight tragedy. And like the assassination of President John F. Kennedy or 9/11, Americans remember exactly where they were and what they were doing when it unfolded. The tragedy was probed, but in 2003, the space shuttle Columbia broke apart while re-entering the atmosphere, killing all seven crew members on board. Despite the grave losses, NASA pulled itself out its institutional trauma and looked again to the future. Despite the grave losses, NASA pulled itself out its institutional trauma and looked again to the future. In the three decades since those disasters, the agency has put multiple rovers on Mars and completed the International Space Station – just two examples of triumph over tragedy.