New Video of Challenger Explosion Surfaces After 24 Years (Video)

hotairpundit ^ | 2/1/10 | HAP

[Talkradio03]

January morning 24 years ago, Corydon optometrist Jack Moss raised his new video camera to the sky over central Florida and captured one of the darkest moments in American space exploration – the explosion of the shuttle Challenger. In the videotape, a stream of white smoke behind the climbing shuttle shoots into view – but Moss, his wife and a neighbor noticed immediately that something was amiss when the channel separated into two streams.

[oh8eleven]

Quite a compelling story - "Challenger engineer Boisjoly tells story behind disaster ..."

[Texas56]

Thank you for posting the picture.

[alicewonders]

I remember that terrible day vividly. I also remember that President Reagan gave a touching, beautiful speech about it. That has always stuck with me.

[mom4melody]

ping to view at home

[tflabo]

Reagan announces to the nation...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEjXjfxoNXM

[Sporaticus]

manned mission to Mars: expensive, unnecessary hogwash

manned mission to the Moon and Moonbase: only necessary if other nations see it as a military advantage and are aiming there.

orbiting manned space stations for science: mandatory

[alicewonders]

Thank you for posting the link to that speech. Wow. Reagan was such a strong comforting figure - I wish we had that kind of leader now.

Awesome speech.

[ncfool]

I remember that day very well as I was getting my very first Cell phone installed in a car. I was watching the TV at the service center for the Cell Company.

[exit82]

Watching the video of Reagan from 1/28/86, I remembered how I cried when he spoke these words.

I cried agian watching the video 24 years later, realizing what a great person and President we had in Ronald Reagan, and that Obama could never exhibit the empathy and leadership of Ronald Reagan.

[Outlaw Woman]

The day the Challenger exploded was a 'Kennedy' day for those of us that were old enough to remember. Personally, I had a scheduled tour of the Palmdale facility of Rockwell. We were manufacturing critical parts for the B1-B (thank you God for President Reagan). My sales person/escort worked for Rockwell and so, it was relatively easy to get into the assembly plant because of the work our company did. Just before he and I were to go out to the assembly floor, our guide, the director of the Palmdale facility, came in and was crying....he informed us that the Challenger had just exploded. What struck me was how the 'mood' of the entire facility changed. The sorrow those workers/assembly line people felt was palpable. Rockwell did afterall have a great stake in the Shuttle program at that time and everyone from the janitor to the engineers were deeply affected. I grabbed the LA Times from the hotel I was staying and have since passed it along to my son. What started out that morning as an excited trip to see the B1B turned into almost a funeral. (although really, watching the B1B being assembled which revived my pride and enthusiasm for the U.S.A. but it was a horrible day overall). Later, (years) I found out that the crew had actually discharged their capsule and were alive until impact with the ocean). As I said earlier, it was a 'Kennedy' moment that will never be forgotten by those of us old enough to remember.

[SWAMPSNIPER]

I was watching from St. Augustine, it was a heartbreaking sight to see.

[Ro_Thunder]

That’s because he not only acted like an adult, he actually WAS an adult.

Our current resident at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is a child pretending to be an adult. He’s effectively a 12 or 13 year old left home alone for the first time.

[alicewonders]

I could not agree more.

[TigersEye]

I was there on the Cape with a pass my aunt got for me and my girlfriend. Not in the main viewing area but on the causeway about five miles straight across the water from the launch pad. I was taking pictures as fast as I could, about one every three seconds, and missed the explosion by taking one of the cloud of steam on the pad.

Moved the viewer back up and immediately knew something was wrong but it took a couple of seconds to really wrap my mind around it. Over the speakers they had out there came the launch officers voice, very calmly and evenly saying "we have experienced a major malfunction." I spontaneously burst out "Major malfunction???" Then I realized the inappropriateness of my outburst and fell silent. So did the NASA launch officer. Nothing more came from their speakers.

Bad day and very strange. They locked the causeway down for about two hours and people just milled about, listened to their radios and some wept. I ended up jump starting several cars that had run their batteries down with their radios.

[Army Air Corps]

I remember watching that live on TV. That is still one of his best speeches. He was holding back tears as he spoke to the camera.

[KevinDavis]

For other space news go to: http://www.spacetoday.net
For a list of Private Space Companies: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_private_spaceflight_companies

[wastedyears]

I was just a few months old when the Challenger blew. Obviously no idea what was going on.

As dangerous as it is though, I’d give whatever internal organs I could to get on a flight into space.

[LiberConservative]

I was a technician at the time working on DOD related projects. I was in the shop working when the Challenger went down. The investigation that followed convinced me to make a career decision I will never regret: I will never, EVER become a manager. I became an engineer, then a programmer. Now I do both. My boss asked me a few months ago if I would be willing to become manager. I told him “no way”. I will never “take off my engineers hat and put on my manager’s hat”. The shuttle engineers were heroes. The managers were criminals and one or more of them should have gone to fracking jail for what happened.