A Letter From the Publisher

By Richard B. Thomas

Among the hundreds of journalists present at last week's ill-fated launch of the space shuttle Challenger were two veteran TIME space watchers: Correspondent Jerry Hannifin and Photographer Ralph Morse. Between them they have logged nearly six decades covering the U.S. space program. As Morse peered through his telephoto lens at the swiftly rising Challenger, he remarked that the lift-off appeared sluggish. "Don't kid yourself," said Morse. "They're in trouble up there."

As the eerily silent orange-yellow blossom of flame suddenly appeared above them, Morse frantically searched through his lens for the speck that might be the separating shuttle, headed for an emergency landing or ditching in the ocean. "Get over to the landing site," he shouted at his assistant. But it was apparent from the cobweb-like streamers filling the sky after the explosion that there was little hope the astronauts had survived.

Hannifin headed for the phone to alert TIME's editors to the worst space disaster in U.S. history, the subject of this week's cover stories. Boston Bureau Chief Robert Ajemian promptly left for Concord, N.H., the home of Teacher Christa McAuliffe. Houston Bureau Chief David Jackson monitored developments at the Johnson Space Center. Washington Correspondent Jay Branegan pored over the tragedy with NASA experts in the nation's capital. In New York City, Senior Writer Ed Magnuson, who wrote the main story, and a 31- member editorial team awaited their telexed reports.

Morse, who photographed the launching of the first U.S. satellite, Explorer I, from Cape Canaveral in 1958, and has been on hand for nearly every manned flight since, vividly recalls the only previous tragedy in the U.S. space program. It occurred in 1967, when an Apollo capsule caught fire on the launch pad, and Astronauts Virgil ("Gus") Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chaffee perished in the inferno. Only the day before, Morse had been shooting aboard their spacecraft, and his photos of the three men lying strapped in their seats were used by NASA to study the accident that killed them.

Hannifin has been TIME's Washington expert on aeronautics and space from the heyday of the 1950s, when daring test pilots were attempting to fly fixed- wing aircraft into space. A longtime aviator, Hannifin was quick to apply to be the first journalist in space. Says he: "When shuttle operations resume -- and I have no doubt that they will, after the Challenger's problem is analyzed and fixed -- I want to go."