[Army Air Corps]

Ping.

[TSgt]

RIP

[SoldierDad]

Ping for later viewing.

[Frantzie]

One of the coldest days in Florida history. You would have thought they would have scrubbed the mission because cold weather in FL does not last very long. Very sad.

God - I am amazed that the shuttles have been around that long.

[scan59]

A sad, sad day. I remember it the way others remember where they were when Kennedy was shot.

[GQuagmire]

ping for later

[Paradox]

I’ll never forget my father waking me up (lazy college student on a day off) to tell me the shuttle blew up. Then I watched and got aggrivated with Dan Rather as he kept speculating that there was an escape capsule coming down with a parachute (There WAS a parachute, but the Shuttles have no escape capsule), I knew that was not the case but Dan kept on asking.. gave everyone false hope.. I was devastated.

[Zuben Elgenubi]

[Arthur McGowan]

Christa McAuliffe’s six-year-old daughter pleaded with her not to go. She is thirty today. I wouldn’t blame her for being bitter. Perhaps she is not. But I wouldn’t blame her.

[oh8eleven]

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

[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.

[tflabo]

Reagan announces to the nation...

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

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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

[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.