Jan 28, 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger

[Bob_VT]

Hard to believe it was 23 years ago..... I was in my gov't car driving to Hq when I heard the news. I could point out the exact spot on the road where I was at the time.

For those of you old enough to remember ........ I am sure you know where you were and what you were doing too.

[Tamago]

i was in africa

[MadMax]

I was at Moody Air Force Base getting a flight physical when the Challenger exploded during liftoff. I remember how cold it was that morning, we had a power outage because of it and I had to sleep in a mountain sleeping bag that I had. We were cut loose at lunch and we went over to the Base Exchange, and saw the video on all of the TVs in the electronics section.

Oddly enough, I also remember exactly where and when I heard about the Columbia crash. Unfortunately, it happened on my 40th birthday and I was at Ramstein Air Base in Germany. It had been snowing heavily and I drove out to get a take-out schnitzel. I was listening to the local radio station and I was wondering why they were discussing the Challenger crash (my German is not that great, but I knew they were talking about a space shuttle crash and naturally I assumed they were talking about the Challenger!). After a few minutes I realized the unthinkable had happened again, and I got that sickening feeling again.

Godspeed to the souls lost on both the Challenger and Columbia!

Cheers! M2

[Morgan]

My mom was in Japan... so I guess technically I was too, but it was the day she found out she was pregnant with me

[Bob_VT]

MadMax I was stationed in Bad Kreuznach with the Army and spent time at Sembach and Ramstein..... I miss those areas.

[PreciousPups4U]

In Hawaii (husband was stationed at Pearl Harbor) watching The Price is Right when they cut in to tell us about it. We had just moved into base housing, was pregnant with my first child. I was unpacking boxes.

[KCALB SIRAY]

In school, Mrs Caldwells English class. It was a new program offered to schools watching the space shuttle take off for the first time live in the classrooms

[*MAD DOG*]

Originally Posted by Bob_VT

Hard to believe it was 23 years ago..... I was in my gov't car driving to Hq when I heard the news. I could point out the exact spot on the road where I was at the time.

For those of you old enough to remember ........ I am sure you know where you were and what you were doing too.

I was 7 years old at the time. It really affected me. At that age I was always watching VCR movies and one of my fav movies as a kid was Space Camp. I used to watch space camp over and over and over along with star wars, top gun, ghost busters and stripes.

What was really strange was that Mitsubishi released a people mover (minivan) called "Challenger" about 2 years after it. It never sold well, may have had to do with the name.

[SailDesign]

In Westport, MA, watching it live on TV. I'll never forget it.

[TheUnGroomed]

I was 2 months old at the time. When I was fifteen I was digging through a closet and found three VHS tapes labeled "Shuttle Disaster." Over the next few days I sat down and watched all three of those tapes.

[jkuchta]

I was at home from school celebrating my fifth birthday with a day off. Real bummer of a birthday present if you ask me!

Don't forget... the Apollo 1 tragedy was 42 years ago yesterday.

[GeneW]

I was playing a game on my Atari 800 computer when my brother told me "The shuttle just blew up". The weather was very cold so I stayed indoors that day.

The weather was also cold at Cape Canaveral... which is worth mentioning since it had some effect on the failure of the O rings.

Richard Feynmann's "Minority Report" while he was on the Challenger Commission is worth a read.

http://www.fotuva.org/feynman/challenger-appendix.html



Gene

[MadMax]

Originally Posted by GeneW

The weather was also cold at Cape Canaveral... which is worth mentioning since it had some effect on the failure of the O rings.

Yeah, I lived about 2½ hrs to the NW of Canaveral and we had a bad freeze the night before! As I said, I had to get up early to go up to Moody AFB for a flight physical, and I still remember how friggin' cold it was that day!

Cheers! M2

[churp]

Was in the black hole, Boeing, Seattle......no radios or other contact, but watched the news a lot after work.

[SuperFunBall]

I was in second grade and if I remember correctly we were on our way back to the portable classroom and stopped to watch it launch. The school I went to is located in Edgewater about 15 miles to 20 miles from the launch pad. We all stood there watching the shuttle go up and then saw the explosion. Our teachers told us that one of the boosters must of hit an airplane that was flying nearby and that is what blew up. Of course by the end of the day the school announced what had happened. I remember the newspapers and stories of people finding wreckage washing up on New Smyrna Beach/Canaveral National Seashore. Defineaty a low point for the space program.

[jclo3313]

My father worked in the vertical assembly building at the cape, so we had front row all of the time.I was in highschool in Titusville Florida sitting in class with a clear view of the launch pad. As soon as the launch went off I went outside to watch with some other students (it was pretty routine for us) when everything went all wrong. I was on the pay phone to my father to see what had happened within 30 seconds of the explosion and they had already cut all incoming and out going calls. I can still see it in my mind as clearly as when it happened. Oddly enough the last message that may father had left me before his stroke was of the loss of Columbia as she re-entered. The space program has been and will always be a part of my life.