Beyonce has justified using audio recordings from the 1986 Challenger space shuttle disaster in her XO track from her recently released album.
Beyonce has been criticized for using clips of an ex-NASA public affairs officer on her XO track.
“My heart goes out to the families of those lost in the Challenger disaster,” Beyonce said in a statement.
The song, she continued, “was recorded with the sincerest intention to help heal those who have lost loved ones”.
The use of the recordings, she said, was intended “to remind us that unexpected things happen, so love and appreciate every minute that you have with those who mean the most to you.
Beyonce has been criticized for using clips of an ex-NASA public affairs officer on her XO track
“The songwriters included the audio in tribute to the unselfish work of the Challenger crew with hope that they will never be forgotten.”
XO, one of the 14 songs on Beyonce’s self-titled new album, was written and produced by Ryan Tedder and Terius Nash.
Seven astronauts died on January 28, 1986, when the space shuttle Challenger disintegrated 73 seconds after launch.
The XO track begins with a recording of NASA’s former public affairs officer Steve Nesbitt referring to “a major malfunction” on the day of the tragedy.
June Scobee Rodgers, the widow of Challenger commander Dick Scobee, told ABC News she was “disappointed” that footage from an “emotionally difficult moment” had been used in the song.
Retired NASA astronaut Clayton Anderson was also critical of the singer, calling the sample “simply insensitive, at the very least”.
Beyonce was born in 1981 in Houston, home to America’s National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
In 2011, Beyonce recorded a special greeting for the Atlantis shuttle crew, telling them they “inspire all of us to dare to live our dreams”.
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An amateur video of the space shuttle Challenger explosion shortly after liftoff has surfaced over 25 years after the tragic event when seven astronauts lost their lives.
The rare film of the 1986 Challenger explosion was taken by Jeffrey Ault of Orange City, Florida.
It is perhaps the only amateur recording of the event on film and it has been made available exclusively to The Huffington Post.
The newly released video offers a closer and more intimate view of the tragedy than have other video reports previously released by the news media.
Jeffrey Ault was part of a live audience gathered to watch the Challenger take off from the Kennedy Space Center, less than 10 miles from the launch site. He shot the video on his Super 8 home video camera, and it sat for 26 years in a box in his house.
“I was hoping to see an event that I would remember for the rest of my life,” Jeffrey Ault told the Huffington Post in an email.
“I did. Just not the way I would have liked to. Unfortunately, it became one of those long lasting memories for all the wrong reasons.”
An amateur video of the space shuttle Challenger explosion shortly after liftoff has surfaced over 25 years after the tragic event
The initial explosion happens at around the 1:20 mark in the video. And it’s clear the spectators don’t grasp what is happening right away, with one person in the background whispering: “Oh, that’s beautiful,” as the shuttle’s contrails split in two and begin descending back toward the ground below.
Shortly after the explosion, former NASA public affairs officer Steve Nesbitt can be overheard announcing from the Mission Control Center: “Flight control is here looking very carefully at the situation. Obviously a major malfunction.”
And finally, at the 2:50 mark, Steve Nesbitt can be heard announcing that the Challenger has exploded. The video ends shortly after that.
The Challenger accident brought all U.S. shuttle flights to a halt and ignited a debate at the time about whether the shuttle program should even continue.
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