‘Trauma to the Nation’s Psyche’

Senator Bill Nelson, in the same NPR story:

It was a huge shock to the American people because the space shuttle had come to represent our entire technological prowess. And when people suddenly saw on their television screens, that was played over and over, the close-up shot of those solid rocket boosters going off in different directions about 10 miles high in the Florida sky — this was a trauma to the nation’s psyche.