Challenger Accident - 25th Anniversary

[WildBill]

Today is the 25th Anniversary of the Challenger accident. Of course this happened pre-internet so news traveled slower back then. I was at work when I received a call from a friend telling me about the it. Later that day we went out to lunch and watched the news. All of the channels were playing the same video over and over until it was permanently etched into my memory.

RIP Challenger Crew - Francis R. (Dick) Scobee, Michael J. Smith, Judith A. Resnik, Ronald E. McNair, Ellison S. Onizuka, Gregory B. Jarvis, and Sharon Christa McAuliffe

[texanron]

I was a freshman at a 2A HS in Central Texas. Probably about 100 kids in the whole school. The principal came around to all the classrooms and instructed the teachers to bring their classes to the gymnasium. Once all the kids and school staff were in the gymnasium he informed us all what had happened and then turned on a tv and showed us the news coverage.

[ELB]

I distincly remember when I heard of it. I was a lieutenant at Tinker AFB, sitting at a desk when someone popped in the door and told us the Challenger blew up. We broke for lunch early and headed to the officers club where there was a TV, and like every one else, watched the video over and over.

[Dave2]

I remember watching the news coverage in my first grade classroom.

[TexDotCom]

I was in 2nd grade and distinctly remember that we were all lined up along the walls in the hallway and a CRT television was wheeled out on a cart for us to watch, and learn about, the lift off of the space shuttle. We learned a lot more than anyone bargained for that day.

[cougartex]

I was at work and heard about it on the radio.

[Oldgringo]

I was on an airplane between ATL and CHS; however, I didn't learn about it until lunch later that day with a client in Charleston.

Mrs. Oldgringo was at work in the Sun Bank in Disney World. She and others were out in the parking lot watching the launch as was common practice in those days. She said something 'ain't right' about that. They then went back in the bank and saw what wasn't right on TV.

It was a sad day.

[Texas Size 11]

7th grade...sitting in 3rd period biology. My teacher's name was Dick Donahue. It came over the school intercom. I remember it like is was an hour ago.

I cannot believe it has been that long.

[i8godzilla]

I was living in Augsburg, (West) Germany at the time. Because of the time difference AFN was showing the launch live during the Today Show. We were in the process of cooking dinner and saw the still unbelievable events unfold.

My Dad called in about twenty minutes and gave us the new as he did not know what we knew. Dad worked for NASA and space contractor from '60-'74. He was visiting friends in Titusville just to watch the launch. He really took it hard, as did others in the local community, that had also been witness to the Apollo tragedy.

God Bless to all of our fallen space heroes.

[longhorn_92]

[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=5hQL0NWS1Rc[/youtube]

R.I.P.

[jimlongley]

I was working at my job with the telephone company, and believe it or not I was actually tasked with installing part of the internet that day. I was at RPI (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute) installing a gateway and server for the NYSERNET (New York State Educational Research Network) and the T1 line from there to SUNY (State University of New York) node was not connected end to end.

I left Troy to go to the Albany end of the circuit right about the time the shuttle was due to launch, and decided to stop at 158 State St. in Albany to see if the T1 had been cut through there yet.

When I arrived after about a 15 minute drive, everyone there knew about it. The crowd of smokers usually present in front and across the street was notably absent and the building guard was in tears.

I never did finish that circuit that day.

[Pawpaw]

I was active duty Air Force, stationed in Germany. My family & I had been out doing something, but hurried home to see the launch.

When we got inside, I went straight to the TV & turned it on while the wife & kids did a few quick things before joining me. They were in the last few seconds of the countdown, so I yelled out that they were going to miss it.

I was still alone in the living room when they launched. I saw the explosion & the SRB's take off on their wild flights. All I could do was scream, "NO!".

There is no explaining what I felt. I just know I never want to go there again.

[OldCannon]

I was active duty in the AF when it happened, and like everybody else, I was glued to the TV, shocked that this had happened, but hopeful that we wouldn't let something like that chase us away from the stars.

Fast forward five years to 1991. I had no idea that I would be working at the company that makes the Space Shuttle and Space Station simulator by then (I was hired as one of the software architects for the Space Station trainer, but that's a different story). On the very date and moment of the launch, we all gathered in our large atrium area, about 200 of us from both teams, and had 73 seconds of silence. There were several people from the shuttle sim team, who had made friends with the STS crew, crying silently. Man and woman alike. There were people who had lunch with them, took their kids to soccer games, and most of all, trained, trained, trained to help them become top notch astronauts.

What touched me so much was the profound sense of frustration, the still-raw sense that the people that had made the indomitable space program the beacon of mankind, had suddenly and violently had their humanity shoved into their faces in a flash.

So, for me, it is not the Challenger itself, nor the crew, that I remember so vividly, but the memory of the people they directly touched, which I felt almost every day that I worked there.

[RiverCity.45]

I was active duty Air Force on the staff at Defense Language Institite in Monterey, CA. Heard the bad news when someone came running into office, so went to a TV to watch. Spooky thing is, about a month beforehand, I had a dream that the shuttle crashed on launch. In my dream, it lifted off, rose for a bit, then arched over and headed towards the ground, then exploded. Not exactly what happened, but shook me up for a couple of days. On the morning I awoke from that dream, I even told my wife about it, adding, "just in case something happens."

[Kythas]

I was in my 11th grade geometry class. My teacher was late to class and we were all wondering where she was when she finally came in about 15 minutes late.

When she walked in the door we all turned around in our seats and she stood there looking like she just lost a member of her family. I could tell she'd been crying. She looked at all of us and quietly announced "The space shuttle just blew up".