"We lost the Challenger 30 years ago today" Topic

I remember this day very clearly. It was an avoidable tragedy.

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May they rest in peace.

I remember exactly where I was and what I was doing when I heard the news. Such a terrible day….

What 53P said. A very sad day.

I heard about the disaster in my high school computer lab. I was stunned and devastated. Had a bit of a crush on Resnick.

I also. I remember exactly the moment I heard.

I will never forget that day. They had a special on this a few nights ago. I couldn't watch.

I was just finishing college. The campus shut down that afternoon. It was so sad.

I remember that horrible morning, may they rest in peace .

It was a snow day for us, so we were at home watching it on tv.

I remember walking in and my brother telling me it had exploded and they thought it might have been a Soviet sub using an AA missile to bring it down. I had just signed up for the Marines and thought this might take us to war if true.

I was working that day. I remember it well.

Already 30 years ago!
I still remember it as if it was yesterday.
I am getting old…

Wow, flashback to passing the television display in a mall store on my day off in Seattle and stopping to watch liftoff after my errand/purchase was complete.

I don't remember much about the travel home from the mall but I remember very unemotionally telling a complete stranger who stopped by and asked me if I was okay (maybe because of the expression on my face,) "The shuttle just exploded on liftoff" then wandering off in a daze to go home.

Thirty years! Seems so long and yet so recent as I sit here typing.

I was a high-school freshman and it was lunch time. I usually skipped lunch and hung-out with my friends in the school's courtyard. That's when we saw everyone gathering around the library. The librarian had her t.v. on and was watching CNN. For a crowd of high-school kids it was very quiet.

Sad day…

We were at Hohenfels doing recovery from a winter REFORGER and were waiting to load our vehicles on a train in a day or two. There was a TV at the laundry drop off/pick up point in the PX tent. The launch failure had just happened when we walked in.

I think the emotion I felt most was anger.
I had a hunch that NASA had fallen back on the "never mind about that, we have a launch to do" mentality that resulted in the Apollo 1 disaster. A school teacher on a flight? Why?
And the commission to "investigate" was worse. All the members were told to act like a government investigating committee. Somehow Richard Feynman never got that memo. A simple demo with a pitcher of water and gasket material.
How can one not be cynical and angry after that?
It had a lot to do with my own cynicism over government looking out for me.

Just sat down to dinner at the mess hall at Ferris Kaserne in Erlangen FRG, when I was told of it.

That was such a sad event. I shocked me as I watched it. My thoughts are still with the relatives and friends of the crew, I wish them peace and well being.

I was five years old when it happened. I remember my mom telling me about it. I thought that the astronauts could be saved if they looked for them in the ocean. The whole concept of them being gone was confusing for me. My mom told me they looked for the astronauts but all they could find were the shuttle's wheels.
It was my first glimpse of death…

Was on the roof at work watching it take off across the Florida peninsula. Having watched it before we know something was wrong with the smoke trails. Even after seeing it happen and hearing it on the news, it was still hard to believe.

I was sitting with probably 3 other classes of kids watching the takeoff on a tiny little TV. I was 7, almost 8.

I was working at a hotel as a banquets & catering houseman and I was waiting on a group of 50 businessmen working on their taxes when I saw the launch inside the employee cafeteria on my break. I told the businessmen what had happened while I brought them sandwiches and coffee later. The businessmen cut their meeting short and spent the rest of the day trying to wrap the tragedy around their heads.

Ft Lewis, Washington. I was twenty years old. We had a company formation and all were informed then.

I remember.

Initially I thought the person who told me what had happened was making it up, and I didn't believe him. It does seem long ago for me now.

Merritt Island FL. Taking a test so the teacher would let us outside to watch(which was the norm). I had seen every launch up to that point with my own eyes. My strongest memory was the sound, or lack there of. Usually you would hear the sound of the launch fade out but this time is just stopped.