OT: 34 years ago today
 

We lost the space shuttle Challenger and her crew....

I was listening at work to the radio broadcast of the launch.

I was in the fifth grade. The whole school or least most of our class was watching the launch.

I was at home for lunch in the 6th grade. Was watching the launch on TV. Hard to ever forget that day.

I was tending bar at a restaurant in Ocean City, MD. I had day bar and had the launch on the tv"s. It took a few seconds to realize what had happened.

I was in the basement of our record distribution company watching.

Shocked and saddened.

In total silence.

I was at the hospital during my training. This letter was in a book of notable letters my wife found. Six months beforehand and engineer was significantly worried about the O-rings.
Oops it's sideways.

I've seen a few videos of the engineers who's decisions were overridden the days approaching the launch. It was sobering to say the least due to the fact that there were several in the MT company that gave no go to this launch but weren't listened to as was supposed to be company policy. Then after the explosion these same people were almost scapegoated by management of both their company and NASA.

I was between classes in the student union of my local community college and watched it as it happened.

Boeing, anyone?
We learn heartbreaking lessons, then corporate greed always wins out over safety in due time, until we have to learn the lesson again. Rinse and repeat.

I was working at Dick Sonnes Ski, Hike and Bike and had gone to the pizza place to pick up lunch for me the boys. I was waiting for my order and saw it on the TV in the dining area.

We weren't all that productive that afternoon.

dave

Oh i remember, in my country is summer and we were in the beach vacationing. When coming back from training around noon, we put the tv and we saw the videos. Shocking and sad.

I was having a great day of skiing with friends. One of the dads picked us up and told us, but we didn't believe him until we heard it on the radio.

28s are a fog for me. Lost my day the 28th Nov 1971, lost my brother 28 Jan, 2003, Columbia was just a few days after his death. My 1st heart attack Oct 28th, 2005, Second Jan 28th 2010. 28s are hard, but I usually drink the best bottle of wine in the house on Jan 28th.

I was in high school sitting in American history class. The teacher was one of the finalists for the first teacher in space and I’ll never forget the look on his face when the vice principal came into the classroom and made the announcement.

I was in 3rd grade. We were in class as usual, not watching live as there were not enough TVs to go around. I remember one of the other teachers coming in and saying something quietly to my teacher, who started crying right there in class. Scared us a little bit because we had no idea what was going on. Some minutes later the principal announced over the PA what happened. Didn't see the video until I got home and watched the news with my mom.

I was in Clearwater, FL, probably 2nd grade - the whole class was outside to watch the shuttle launch.......

I was in first grade at James S Evans elementary school in Wappingers Falls NY. We were all in the cafeteria watching as the first teacher was set to go into space and then it happened. It was pretty horrifying to see and all I remember was silence after the explosion. It was the first major catastrophe I remember living through. Hard to believe it’s been 34 years.


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I skipped school that day and was home watching it live on tv at home. I remember being in awe at how most of the observers on the ground didn't realize what happened and were still cheering. So sad.

Funny how you remember where you were for certain events.
Challenger-in VF-31 ready room listening to CO, launch on TV.
Columbia-getting car washed..watching TV in lobby.
Kennedy assassination-walking across cross walk in Azores(father in USAF) with my mother..guy walking the other way with transistor radio..stops and shouts..
Yup, I'm old-:)

9/11..everybody remembers where they were for that one.

I was one week into the second semester of my senior year in college. As an aeronautical engineering student, I knew there was a shuttle launch that morning. I was in class with one of my roommates when the tragedy occurred. We walked back to our apartment to find the rest of our roommates glued to the TV watching the midday news. We were all stunned.

I knew pretty quickly that this was both a watershed moment for my generation and a firm reminder that my chosen career had severe consequences for poor decisions. Three decades later, I regularly remind young engineers that their design, manufacturing, and sustainment decisions can have life changing effects.

Greg

I was in 7th grade at the time. We were not watching live. There was simply an announcement over the PA system.

After Challenger I went to Space Camp and then in college took aerospace and mechanical engineering (during the downturn in the aerospace industry in the early 90s). During my college days I flew on the vomit comet for a student experiment on the ignition and combustion of metals in microgravity. After college I got a job at Hughes in L.A. (same company that Greg Jarvis worked for before he became a Payload Specialist on Challenger).

Based on college friends and co-workers over the years, a lot of us wound up working in the industry in some form because of Challenger.

I was walking to class past the AV lab and they had the launch playing on a television so we stopped to watch as my home room teacher was in the final 10 or 12 teachers to be picked from to be on that launch. Fortunately he didn’t make the final cut, the role call the next morning was very somber as well.
Another surreal moment in life where you’ll never forget that moment.