Shuttle families slam Beyonce
New York – Families and colleagues of the astronauts killed in the Challenger space shuttle disaster have expressed dismay over a pop song by Beyonce which features a recording from the moments after the craft exploded.
‘‘ Flight controllers here looking very carefully at the situation,’’ said Steve Nesbitt, a public affairs officer for Nasa, as an appalled nation watched the shuttle, which was carrying seven astronauts, disintegrate over the Atlantic on the morning of January 28, 1986. ‘‘ Obviously a major malfunction.’’
That short statement from a man weighing the deaths of seven colleagues now plays at the start of XO, a Beyonce single about a couple going through a break- up.
The scratchy recording is sampled at the start of a video shot at the Coney Island amusement park. ‘‘ Your love is bright as ever, even in the shadows,’’ she sings. Then the video cuts to a shot of the singer stepping out to take the wheel of a bumper car.
June Scobee Rogers, the widow of the shuttle commander Dick Scobee and founder the Challenger Centre for Space Science Education, said: ‘‘ We were disappointed to learn that an audio clip from the day we lost our heroic Challenger crew was used in the song XO.
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‘‘ My heart goes out to the families of those lost in the disaster.’’ song is an emotionally difficult one for the Challenger families, colleagues and friends. We have always chosen to focus not on how our loved ones were lost, but rather on how they lived and how their legacy lives on today.’’
Keith Cowing, a former employee at the space agency who now runs the website NASAwatch, noted that the singer ‘‘ was a little girl living in Houston in 1986 when her astronaut neighbours ( including a schoolteacher) died on their way to work in outer space. She needs to apologise for using this audio clip and remove it from the song’’.
The song was composed and produced by Ryan Tedder and Terius Nash and she has maintained that they ‘‘ included the audio in tribute to the unselfish work of the Challenger crew with hope that they will never be forgotten’’.
In a statement, Beyonce said: ‘‘ My heart goes out to the families of those lost in the Challenger disaster.’’
She insisted that the song ‘‘ was recorded with the sincerest intention to help heal those who have lost loved ones and to remind us that unexpected things happen, so love and appreciate every minute that you have with those who mean the most to you.’’
Clayton Anderson, a former astronaut who was given the job of consoling the families of those who died on that morning in January, told ABC News that the use of the clip was ‘‘ simply insensitive at the very least’’.
He seemed to allow that the pain caused was unintentional. ‘‘ What we do in space just isn’t as important to young people today,’’ he said.