Space shuttle Challenger disaster 30 years ago today

[MillCreek]

I was giving a lecture to a group of dentists when it happened.  The hotel wheeled a TV into the conference hall and we all watched in stunned silence.

[BobR]

I was headed into the hanger for a 0900 (PST) pre-flight for a bounce flight (going out to do touch and goes and pilot training). Stopped by the Duty Office to watch the launch. We still went flying but it was a very quiet flight, pretty much all business.

bob

[bedlamite]

1986, 33 years ago. I was still in high school then. We were watching it live.

[TommyGunn]

I was at work,  during a lunch break.  A coworker came into the break room and announced the Challenger had just "crashed."   He had a sketchy reputation and had told some tall rales,  so I didn't believe it.   I went out and turned on my car radio to a news station, and heard it.   I saw the news footage video that evening. 

[230RN]

^ Same thing.  Co worker came in and said it had "crashed."  Immersed in what I was doing and some personal things, I just figured they popped the capsule and the astronauts would be safe while the vehicle itself went down.  I didn't grok the fact that the shuttle had no escape system.

It wasn't until later that I found out all were lost.

[RoadKingLarry]

I was home on an emergency leave to attend a funeral the previous day.
It was the first launch I'd ever had the opportunity to watch live.
I never watched another one live.

[Jamisjockey]

Yup 1986 was 33 years ago. I was in 6th grade, watching from my classroom in El Toro, CA.

[AZRedhawk44]

I was in 2nd grade and we were watching the launch live in class.  Half the kids started crying.

[Kingcreek]

I was working and listening on the radio. Watched video when I got home that night.
My best friend growing up (still a good friend) was an engineer who worked on the original space shuttle development and construction including challenger. Iirc there were 4. He worked on airframe design and machining but said all of them were pretty shaken by the failure.

[lee n. field]

Working.  I don't recall anything in particular when it happened.  1989, I was probably kind of distracted/depressed at the time with work and family situation.

[Brad Johnson]

Sr. in high schoool. Rattled us pretty good because one of our teachers had been among the TiS applicant finalists. Announcement came over the school PA. They called all students out front of the school to gather around the flag for a moment of prayer.

Brad

[RocketMan]

Had been working swing shift at a now defunct Motorola diode factory in Phoenix.  Got up, turned on CNN for my daily news fix and saw what had happened.  Sat there for hours watching the coverage before heading back to work that afternoon.

[brimic]

We watched it in school, I was in 7th grade...

[HankB]

I was at work. My mother called me with the news. Shock and dismay . . . with anger and outrage following in the coming weeks and months as it became clear that POLITICS brought it down. 

[Sindawe]

I was picking up something in the campus book store when some random dude walked in and commented about how the shuttle just exploded at launch.  Hurried upstairs to check out the idiot boxes in the student center.  Organic Chem II was pretty somber that day, as were the rest of my classes.

2nd most memorable moment in college.

[BobR]

I was picking up something in the campus book store when some random dude walked in and commented about how the shuttle just exploded at launch.  Hurried upstairs to check out the idiot boxes in the student center.  Organic Chem II was pretty somber that day, as were the rest of my classes.

2nd most memorable moment in college.

Dude, you didn't get laid until you went to college???


bob

[Sindawe]

Dude, you didn't get laid until you went to college???


bob

LOL!  Ya know, I really don't recall my first time but it was a fair peace before college.  I was thinking more of this fun, watching the sky from outside the student center and wondering where the frak my then GF was.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlraM55E3Sg

[Scout26]

A bunch of us were in the student commons de-bugging our COBOL programs.  There was a TV near the ceiling in the corner opposite.   DeVry always had the Shuttle Launches on as there were/are many, many DeVry grads working for NASA.  I remember just about everyone had their back to the TV and were hunched over the table going over the 132 column wide green and white tractor paper print out, when I said....."Hmmmm, I don't think it's supposed to do that...." when I saw the SRB's corkscrewing away from the large white puff of smoke.

Someone reached up and cranked and the volume on the TV just in time for us to hear "Flight Controllers are looking very carefully at the situation....Obviously, a major malfunction."

Yeah, the rest of day (week) was pretty somber.

[makattak]

I was in 2nd grade and we were watching the launch live in class.  Half the kids started crying.

I was in 2nd grade and have pretty much no memory of it at all. We weren't watching it live, so it made almost no impression on my young mind.

[AJ Dual]

I was 12, and I and my family were at KSC the day before to watch the launch, until it was scrubbed due to the problem with the side crew airlock.

I remember the cold snap that night, and all the local news about the orange groves spraying water for protective ice, and lighting smudge pots to protect the crop.

We were eating lunch at EPCOT and my father slipped away to a payphone to check in with work, and his coworkers asked if he'd seen the shuttle explode. He thought they were joking.

[gunsmith]

     I didn't watch it.
   I was pissed off that we stopped going to the moon, I watched the first two shuttles launch but was pretty disenchanted with the space program.
I recall thinking before hand that it it seemed more like a political launch, Reagan was suppose to talk to the teacher on the phone iirc.
 One of the local conspiracy theorist said that it was done on purpose, because "they" didn't want people to know the truth about moon landings and aliens.
 At the time, we discussed how much they were aware of what happened, I thought they died instantly but another friend, a failed sci-fi writer, insisted that they did not die in the sky, but drowned after landing.
 I thought it was unlikely, even if they survived the explosion, hitting the ocean going that fast would kill them.

 The whole thing soured me further on NASA.
The space program of the sixties inspired me. but the seventies and beyond it seemed like a wasted potential.
no moon base, I really wanted a moon base that we could use to explore from without the difficulty of escaping earth.

[lee n. field]

     I didn't watch it.
   I was pissed off that we stopped going to the moon, I watched the first two shuttles launch but was pretty disenchanted with the space program.
I recall thinking before hand that it it seemed more like a political launch, Reagan was suppose to talk to the teacher on the phone iirc.
 One of the local conspiracy theorist said that it was done on purpose, because "they" didn't want people to know the truth about moon landings and aliens.
 At the time, we discussed how much they were aware of what happened, I thought they died instantly but another friend, a failed sci-fi writer, insisted that they did not die in the sky, but drowned after landing.

Victor Koman, perhaps.  His first novel was one of the first successful e-books, and discussed the shuttle failure aftermath.  I remember that part being discussed, that the explosion didn't kill them.

I thought it was unlikely, even if they survived the explosion, hitting the ocean going that fast would kill them.

 The whole thing soured me further on NASA.
The space program of the sixties inspired me. but the seventies and beyond it seemed like a wasted potential.
no moon base, I really wanted a moon base that we could use to explore from without the difficulty of escaping earth.