Twenty Five Years Ago Today...

I was working for a local computer company in Florida.  It was an unusually cold morning, and on that particular day, I had to go to Vero Beach with a technician to work on a customer's computer.  I remember that it was a Commodore PET.


We were on our way back and I happened to look out the window and I saw the Space Shuttle going up.  I mentioned it to the tech and he asked if we could stop an watch.  I said, "Of course!"


Now, I had watched several shuttle launches down there.  Even as far away as were were, a couple of hundred miles, it was quite visible.  
As I watched the little dot of flame moving upward, leaving a trail of smoke, I thought, "There are people on there going to space..."


Suddenly, there was a sort of a flash, not unlike that seen in the earlier rockets when they stages would separate.  In fact, my first thought was "Well, there goes the first stage...." followed immediately by, "Wait, there are no stages on the shuttle...this is very bad."  The smoke trail formed the now familiar Y-shape as the boosters broke away.


I said, "I hope they are doing an RTLS, a return to landing site."  I just could not wrap my mind around what I knew was happening.


I turned on the radio, and found a station covering the launch.  The first thing I heard was, "Something appears to have gone very wrong..."  Over the next few minutes they talked about how NASA was trying to figure out what was going on, that there had been a major malfunction, and then, there was an odd report that said that paramedics were being dropped into the water.


But the truth quickly became clear.  Seven astronauts had died that cold January morning.

Commander "Dick" Scobee

Pilot Michael J. Smith

Mission Specialist 1 Ellison Onizuka

Mission Specialist 2 Judith Resnik

Mission Specialist 3 Ronald McNair

Payload Specialist 1 Sharon Christa McAuliffe, Teacher in Space

Payload Specialist 2 Gregory Jarvis

That evening, I went home and watch The Right Stuff.  It was my way of processing the tragedy I had witnessed.  I thought back on how risky those early flights were, and how routine space flight seemed to have become.

Over two and a half years later, on September 29, 1988 I was privileged to see the first post-Challenger shuttle launch.  I was in college, and a number of us went out and watched as America returned to space.  We all agreed, if offered the chance, we would have gladly gone along on that flight.

Momma, They Took My Kodachrome Away....

Well, sometime in the next few days, the absolute, final roll of Kodachrome film will be processed.  A place in Kansas, known as Dwayne's Photo is the last lab in the world to process Kodachrome. Kodak stopped making the film about a year or so ago, and Dwayne's is shutting down the final line and selling the machinery for scrap.


Years ago, when I got heavily into photography, I became fascinated by the who mystique of Kodachrome.  Unlike other color films, it could only be processed at certain labs.  The process was extremely complex, and at the time, required specially trained staff, including an on-site chemist.  


Of course, that seemed like a challenge to me.  I wanted to become the first person to "home process" Kodachrome.  I actually managed to talk someone at Kodak into sending me detailed information on the process.  Now, the actual processing manual were described as being the size of a phone book, but I got my hands on a document that included information like the actual chemicals required (they had to be mixed from raw ingredients) and the specific color filters and lighting needed for the three exposures needed to do the color reversals.  It also included other details like the timing, and temperatures for each step.


Kodachrome was not like other color films.  It was, essentially, a black and white film with color filters that created three layers.  The first step required removing a black coating, which could be quite messy.  In fact, if Kodachrome film accidentally found its way into a machine designed to process other films, it would likely cause the other rolls of film to be ruined.


Next, was simply black and white processing.  Then, through a series of steps involving exposure to very specific colors of light, and complex chemical baths, the various color layers were created.  This was where Kodachrome processing became complicated.


The chemicals involved were extremely toxic.  And outrageously expensive.  This was what stopped me dead in my tracks.  I might could have built the processing equipment out of parts scavenged from local labs's outdate equipment.  The filters would have been costly, but would be a one time expense.  But when I checked the Kodak catalog where, amazingly, the chemicals were all listed (though there was no indication what they were actually for) I found that the cost would have run into several thousand dollars. Some of the chemicals were hundreds of dollars for a few grams, and there were a lot of chemicals involved.  In time, Kodak would develop a simpler machine, that used packaged chemicals, but at the time I was looking at the process, that was not available.


I look back fondly on those dreams.  It would have been a grand experiment, and would have surely won me fame, and possibly even fortune.  But, alas, it was simply not to be.


And now, Kodachrome is all but gone.  The last rolls will soon pass through the last processor, and an era will end.