Like a comet through flames and wrapped in roars 
That Spender’s Express could ne’er have dreamed,
Shedding bits and pieces as they climbed,
They left the earth to visit near-earth space: 
A hostile absence of environment.

Willingly they climbed atop a fuel load
That could have devastated twenty towers.
(Challenger, and her seven, proved that!)

At the very top of the atmosphere
Our Columbia met her waterloo.

At nearly twenty times the speed of sound,
Shedding bits and pieces as she tumbled,
The mightiest monster that ever man had tamed
Failed her makers, her riders and became
The mightiest comet that man had ever made.
God, please, bless and keep those seven also.