Do you remember when the space shuttle Challenger exploded? I remember it very well. I was in third grade and my teacher came in from a meeting and she was crying and told us that the space shuttle blew up. I cried because I so desperately wanted to go into space and a teacher was going to go up.

What about you guys?

I was off from school (sophomore year of high school) because it was a snow day and my mom and I had gone to the post office (the roads were really bad where we were, just in the more rural areas). When we were coming in the back door at home, my little brother told us about it.

I still remember it vividly.

I was in the hallway at school. Since it was January of 1986, that would mean that I was in seventh grade at the time. One of the hall monitors told me the shuttle blew up, and I didn't believe him. I'd heard so many bills of goods as a kid that I thought this was just another one. He insisted; I insisted he was wrong.

Flash forward to class. The substitute teacher said she heard the shuttle exploded. I very vocally said I thought it was nonsense. I remember she was very patient about it and didn't engage in any knock-down drag-outs with me in class or after class.

I didn't believe it until I walked across the street to the library and a TV was out in the lobby with Tom Brokaw announcing it and then seeing now-familiar images of the shuttle's explosion.

Hard to believe that was 18 years ago today.

Our class (sixth grade) had gathered to watch it in the library of Tara Elementary School. I remember looking at it on tv and not really being able to wrap my brain around it.

I was in the dining hall at college - freshman year. I was at the salad bar, fueling up for my ski trip that afternoon, when I heard about the explosion. I simply couldn't believe it until another one of my friends came into the dining hall and talked about having seen in on the news. We didn't go skiing that day, just hung around the TV room and watched the coverage. I remember the footage of Christa McAuliffe's (sic?) parents watching the launch; the initial confusion about what had happened, and then the realization that the ship was gone all going across their faces - really horrible.

The ironic thing I also remember is that when Christa was selected as the teacher in space, her life insurance company promptly cancelled her policy. Lloyd's of London then came through with a free $1,000,000 policy for her, almost as a way of saying "how idiotic to cancel life insurance for such a routine thing as a Shuttle flight." They did pay up, and I believe that is why her husband never sued anyone after the crash.

I was in the 9th or 10th grade and we were actually watching the launch it in Science class. When it blew up, it seemed fake, like Battle Star Galactica. It wasn't until the replay that it actually sunk in.

The same feeling came back when the WTC was bombed and the 2nd shuttle blew up. I wonder if my daughter will be having this conversation about those things, 15 years from now?

I was in grad school...blew off my morning class that day, slept in, was brushing my teeth when it happened...roommate and a buddy came in a half hour later, razzed me for sleeping in (I never made it out of my bathrobe), and ddin't believe me for the first few minutes until they saw the video themselves.

I was serving as a pallbearer at my first "AIDS funeral" for a friend of mine and found out when I got home. I was 26 and just totally numb from it all...just couldn't imagine how much worse life could possibly get that day.

That's a very good description of how I felt on 9/11...2 days before my 31st birthday.

A cold day in sixth grade. Teacher wheeled in a TV for the class to watch. Was sitting in the first seat of the last row. Remember I had a cold because I kept blowing my nose until the girl next to me shushed me.

Wow, is that when it was? I didn't realize that CPT and I are the same grade year. I was also a freshman in college. I was on my way home from a class, and on my way to volleyball, when I stopped in the lounge to see what people were watching. I remember being shocked, but not able to watch it for a long time because of needing to get to volleyball. After that, I came back to the dorm and watched more.

Trevor

I was the Sales Contracts Manager for Precision Metal Products, in southern california. We forged parts for that bird's fuel ingniter. I was in my office at the plant. We all stepped outside, and lowered our Stars & Stripes.

I was 6. I don't recall much of it. I still don't think I've ever seen the actual footage. A few pictures, but not the video. Similar to 9/11, I don't think they'll really ever replay the videos because of the sadness it brings to people.

Wow! It's all I remember seeing for weeks after it happened...just like 9/11. Every once in a while, there are still cable specials on where they show the footage -- and it will probably be on tonight, too, where the guy says, "Shuttle go at throttle up...".

[ January 28, 2004, 02:21 PM: Message edited by: bobby78751 ]

I was working at Sears at the time. I remember walking up to the 2nd floor of the store by the TV department. I noticed all the commotion by all the TV screens replaying the horrible disaster.

[ January 28, 2004, 02:52 PM: Message edited by: amazin12 ]

God I feel old reading these responses, everyone was in grade school or high school. My partner and I had taken the day off from work and were driving back from a weekend ski trip in the mountains of West Virginia. They had had record cold (minus 25 at Snowshoe WVa) and that was also part of the problem in Florida, it had been cold there as well. The O-rings had contracted due to the cold. We were driving through the mountains and the radio kept cutting on and off, I will always remember that day, as well as 9/11 and (gasp!) the days John (I was 4) and Robert Kennedy were shot. I don't remember the day MLK was killed but remember the funeral and the aftermath, the sadness, the riots. You guys are right, a numb feeling, helplessness and sadness, and a guilty feeling when you went back to the day-to-day business of life were the order of the day.

I was walking across campus at OSU on my way back to my apt. I stopped in at the corner convience store when I noticed everyone was huddled around the counter. They had a small B/W TV. Thats when I first heard about it. I ran across the street to my apt., turned on the TV and stood there almost an hour before I moved again. Couldn't believe it. My roommate came in shortly after. We both blew off our afternoon classes to watch the coverage.

I was doing some research in the Library of the Architecture Building at Oklahoma State University when I heard people talking about it. It was my one "easy" semester when I didn't have a design studio class, so I actually had time to go to my apartment and watch television. Most other Architecture students in the building were so involved in their design projects that they just kind of went, "yeah, whatever" and kept on working. I didn't really comprehend what had happened until I saw those plumes of smoke, looking almost like fireworks. I sat there and cried, not knowing exactly why. I was thinking: I don't know these people who died or anything, so what's with the tears? TV news wasn't obsessed with making every little event a "breaking news" story back then, so when they interrupted programming you knew something dramatic had happened.

Would that be the Buy-n-Bye store by the Wrestling Hall of Fame? Gosh, we were probably a couple hundred yards from each other at the time!

I was working a temp job at a publishing house in Boston. We listened to the coverage on the radio and then left for the day. When I got home I watched the incessant replay of the explosion maybe 10 times and then turned off the TV in disgust. We. Get. It. Stop showing it. I've been equally disgusted with the way TV covers any major tragedy since. Once you've delivered the news -- and I mean The News, not the NASA janitor's reaction to it -- please return to your regularly scheduled programming. But, no... Dear TV Execs: I have an Off button and I know how to use it. Best news outlet in the country? Still The New York Times.

Bballrob: I'm old, too. I remember the JFK/RFK/MLK assasinations, too. Ditto Vietnam, Kent State, race riots, etc. Oh, and The Beatles on Ed Sullivan, too.

11th grade study hall in the cafeteria... The vice-principal was cool, and always allowed us to have the radio on during study hall since it was in a big place like the cafeteria. All of a sudden they announced it on the radio, and everybody just got quiet immediately. We had a moment of silence, and then went back to studying (or socializing). The radio station played Elton John's "Rocket Man" soon after.

Yep- I was already a cop when the Challenger blew up -but was on a day off at home- I also remember all those above tragedies that I wish I didn't remember. frown

Like Trevor and CPT, I was a freshman in college. I was half-asleep off in my dorm room in between classes, and had the radio on. The song "Tonight She Comes" by the Cars had just finished when the DJ said there was an explosion on the shuttle. That was enough to completely jolt me awake so I went to the TV lounge and watched the news. To this day, anytime I hear that song, the shuttle comes to mind.

I'm in the same group as copman, vividly remember JFK, RFK, MLK,.... On January 28, '86, I was heading to work--at that time in downtown San Diego--with my partner, Kyle, who also worked in the downtown area. When we heard the news, we both became glued to tv sets and recalled what we were doing at moments of other national tragedies.
I even admired Reagan (the only time I did) for his comments following the Challenger explosion.

~Adam

Wow, has it been 18 years already? I remember very well, 8th grade English class. A moment I will never forget, when I heard the news.

I found out about it in AP Physics class, just after lunch. It was my senior year in high school.

I remember someone was questioning whether there was a way they could have jettisoned out of the craft.

PCC, my memory is a lot like yours. I was a high school junior, and I was in European History class when the accident happened. Going to lunch after class, one of my classmates came running into the locker room saying the space shuttle blew up. My friends & I yelled at him to shut up, because no one believed him. But in the cafeteria, the senior class had a stereo system, and the radio had a static-y news broadcast. The announcers sounded like they were crying. I said to myself, Holy S***, it's true.

So I went around the building telling other people, and at first no one believed me. After classes ended, I snuck into the teachers' lounge to watch the news on TV. It was about that point I think, at 3 PM Eastern, that the O-rings in the boosters were being studied carefully on tape.

I was on the way to the airport to go to Vegas for my 21st bday...

I was working in the office of a meatpacking company doing lite accounting, when the local alternative rock station, KROQ, interrupted its usual diet of Depressed Mode, The Cure and Morrissey to make the announcement. They played Elton John's Rocket Man, even though Bowie's Space Oddity or especially Ashes to Ashes would have been more appropriate.

All because of a frayed O-ring. *SIGH*

Actually I lived south of Lewis Field. It was the convience store (forgot the name) across from the Seretian Performing Arts Center with Subway on the other corner. I lived in the Maple 500 apt. directly behind the store. Eskimo Joes was about 50 yards from my place. Now thats convience. Did you live in Murphy, (Murrey?) Hall or in that area?

How sad. We today remembered Challenger's 7. Sunday we shall remember Columbia's 7. frown

[ January 28, 2004, 10:42 PM: Message edited by: MIB ]

I was taking annual inventory at Kmart. I had seen it on the TVs on the sales floor, but by the time I got back to the employee lounge, it had taken on an otherworldly quality.

They push themselves to beyond, trying to get to the place they can see.

I was 18 years old and touring with a music group. We were somewhere on the east coast, Boston I think. Someone interrupted the rehearsal to break the news. They rolled in a couple of TV's and we watched everything unfold. I remember feeling sad and crying because one of the astronauts was from Hawaii (where I'm from) and I really felt for his family. I'l never forget that moment.

I was a junior in college in my room at the fraternity house. I remember the video they showed of the crowd who watched the liftoff. The looks on their faces are unforgetable frown

Wow, I feel so young. I was in the 1st grade and all the classes at school were watching it live becuase the Teacher was from Florida, if I remember correctly. It was kinda wierd because when the shuttle blew up all the boys were like ooohhh and wow, but the teacher was screaming and crying. I was 7 and I watched it as if I was watching a cartoon or TV show. It was until after my teacher calmed down and stopped crying until she explained the reality of the situation. My grandmother also explained it to me and my brothers when we got home.

Da Kid.

I was a senior in high school. I remember hearing about it in my Graphic Arts class while I was at work on the typesetting machine. Someone came over and said, "The space shuttle Challenger* exploded a mile up into the air." And my first response was, "Were there any survivors?" Which was, of course, a ludicrous thing to say, but the notion that a space shuttle would explode seemed pretty farfetched at the time, too. The teacher wheeled in a television from down the hall, and we all watched the continuous footage in total disbelief. Very sad.

Of course, this being high school, I heard the first Challenger disaster jokes later that afternoon during lunch.


*That was another thing that I remember - everyone always referred to it as "The space shuttle Challenger," like "the year 2000."

I know exactly where you mean. I was in an old duplex about 1 block east and 2 or 3 blocks north of you. My best friend lived in a little run-down apartment right behind EJ's.

Back to remembering the Challenger... and Columbia. Somehow Columbia was different. With the Challenger we knew immediately that it was a disaster with no possible survivors, and we saw it with our own eyes. And of course there was a civilian on board, which helped the public relate to the disaster. With Columbia we didn't know what had happened for a while. It was a mystery until they started finding the debris in Texas. Maybe I was numb to what was a relatively minor incident in comparison to 9/11, yet it certainly was a national tragedy.

[ January 29, 2004, 01:08 PM: Message edited by: maxallen ]

I was in Kindergarten and watching it on TV if I am not mistaken. I remember the teacher crying when it happened.

I heard about it at work, not being young enough to still be in school. eek! We had a TV in our conference room so as soon as we could get a break we went and watched the replays.

It was the afternoon; I was walking out of the old Bally's Health Club in Hollywood at LaBrea. In those days L.A. had two real papers - the Times was the morning paper and the Examiner was the afternoon paper. I glanced up at the metal box dispenser and the entire above the fold of the Examiner had just one big word on a black background - "Tragedy." The only time I ever bought that paper.

I was so sad, having been totally geeky for Captain Kirk, Major Matt Mason, and Neil Armstrong as a kid.

I grew up 13 miles from Edwards Air Force Base in California. Our house was in line with the main runway only 7 miles away. I was fortunate to be able to see the shuttle long before it's first flight into space. There were many days in Junior High when my teacher would let us go outside during class to watch the space shuttle fly by. Back then they were carrying it "piggy back" on top of an airliner to test it. I graduated from High School in June 1981. My plans were to go to Oklahoma for college. But before I left home I was able to catch the the very first space shuttle mission landing. I didn't even leave my house. I stood in the front yard and was amazed to see the Columbia falling at such a steep rate before it touched down; it was unlike anything I had ever seen before. A couple months later I left for college in Oklahoma. To this day I have never seen another shuttle landing.

I was home for Thanksgiving a couple months ago. My parents tend to keep little momentos from special events on the kitchen mantle. In the very corner I noticed an old Pepsi can. It was what we used to call a "Space Shuttle Pepsi". Back in 1981 Pepsi issued a special can commemorating the landing of the first shuttle. As I stood up and looked at the can I remembered all the excitement of that very first landing all those years ago. I thought of all that has happened in my life since, and I wondered about the final flight of Columbia. Could it have been prevented? Did it really have to happen? Of course I didn't have an answer, just more questions. And you know, that's what the entire space program is all about. Humanity's never ending search for answers.

I've been watching the Mars rover missions with the same sort of enthusiasm I felt as an 18 year old kid watching that first shuttle land in the desert. With every photo I see I can't wait for more answers. And it won't end there, I'm hoping that within my lifetime I will witness a man walking on Mars.

Like myself, humanity is growing up; and growing wiser as we do. You can't look back in life, you can only look forward. As I think about the sacrifices astronauts have made for humanity I can only hope that we have the wisdom to learn, understand and grow from the answers that they have sacrificed their lives to give us.

Excellent post, timber. Well put.

I was at Auburn in MN274 waiting for class to start and the professor came in and told us that the Space Shuttle had just blown up....then proceeded to have class.