Episode 1.9 "Space"

Aired November 12, 1993

This episode mostly made me remember that I witnessed the Challenger explosion.  I was in 6th grade, and my grandparents were visiting from New Hampshire, my mother had let me stay home from school because they were in, and my grandmother and I were sitting on the sofa watching (along with the rest of the world) as the shuttle launched, and then exploded...  Much later the blame boiled down to a faulty O-ring, this episode mentions that.

"Space" starts out with an interview as the NASA mission has found water on Mars and what appears to be a facial structure.  Then goes to the shuttle launch, which is aborted 3 seconds before lift-off. 

Mulder and Scully go to Huston after NASA worker, Michelle Generoo (Hey, I know who she is...that's Moira Queen from Arrow, AKA Susanna Thompson also known for being Army Lt. Col. Hollis Mann on NCIS and the Borg Queen on Star Trek Voyager..wow, I'm a nerd.) shows them evidence that the space shuttle might have been sabotaged.  She wishes to stop the relaunch because her husband will be aboard the shuttle, and she is afraid for him. (Challenger aborted launch, then rescheduled days later... Not liking where this episode is going at the moment.)

Mulder gets to meet General M.A. Belt (one of Mulder's childhood heroes), an astronaut from the Gemini flight, that had trouble when he was out in space years before.  There's a couple of hokey "creepy" face overlays that makes you wonder if it's a ghost or some non-corporal alien, there's more issues with the shuttle and telemetry.  And in the end, it is implied that General Belt (unknowingly) might have been responsible of the sabotage. (In the end he commits suicide/was murdered by the space entity.)

If you've seen the movie SpaceCamp (it's from 1986, and is about a group of kids at space camp that accidentally get launched into space on the shuttle and have to make it home.  The film came out shortly (6 months) after the Challenger exploded, and I remember thinking, this hits too close to home) then you understand the flight crews reactions and also cheer when things go correctly.  I fully admit, I cheered along with them when Michelle's husband, David, FINALLY answers and jokingly asks if she knows of a good place to eat in Albuquerque. 

That was pretty much all for this one.  You could easily re-watch Challenger footage and the SpaceCamp movie and experience the same amount to anxiety that this episode gives you. 

Now to try to stay on track and watch Fallen Angel.  Back in a little bit.  xoxo