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In Memoriam

Apollo 1 AS-204 - January 27, 1967; 23:31:19 UTC 49 years ago

Challenger OV-099 - STS-51-L January 28, 1986 11:39:13 EST (16:39:13 UTC) 30 years ago

Columbia OV-102 - February 1, 2003 08:59 EST (13:59 UTC) almost 13 years ago

1 posted on 01/28/2016 4:12:31 AM PST by WhiskeyX
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To: WhiskeyX

I remember this well....

......it was the only time I didn’t stand in the back yard to watch the lift off.....because it was TOO COLD!
I had my TV on......and when it happened, I then went outside & could see the contrails.

This devastated the people of Brevard County and the nation.....( I’m about 30 minutes from the Cape)
Our county is big on aerospace technology.....many companies here.....our schools with children of aerospace engineers ...( my two included)

It was the beginning of the end for the little city of Titusville.....and Cocoa Beach for a while, but it bounced back

A dark and sad sad time.


2 posted on 01/28/2016 4:36:23 AM PST by Guenevere (If.the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do....)
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To: WhiskeyX

My 11th grade history teacher came flying in the classroom, wheeling one of those big carts with a TV and a VCR that you use to watch videos in class.
She didn’t say a word the whole class, just stared at the TV.
We were 17 so we thought, “hey, free class, no work”.
Come to find out she knew the teacher that was on the shuttle.


3 posted on 01/28/2016 5:04:17 AM PST by envisio (I ain't here long... I'm out of napalm and .22 bullets.)
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To: WhiskeyX

I remember the media frenzy and speculation as they waited for the searchers to find the bodies and bring them back to Cape Canaveral. But the bodies weren’t there. Searchers had secretly found them and brought them to my father, a USAF doctor who was commanding a nearby base hospital that night. So sad.


6 posted on 01/28/2016 5:25:50 AM PST by mikeus_maximus
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To: WhiskeyX

BTTT


11 posted on 01/28/2016 6:14:49 AM PST by Delta 21 (Patiently waiting for the jack booted kick at my door.)
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To: WhiskeyX

Bfl


17 posted on 01/28/2016 6:58:13 AM PST by katykelly
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To: WhiskeyX

My daughter co-wrote a play about the Challenger disaster when she was in college (theater major and space geek). A small theater (Pocket Theater) in Seattle is putting on the play in April with her as producer. Not bad for a 22-year old! Her day job is at the Museum of Flight.


19 posted on 01/28/2016 8:12:45 AM PST by lkco
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To: WhiskeyX

Ironically, the actual destruction of Challenger was just sheer bad luck.

The burn-thru at the SRB joint was completely random and only by bad luck occurred in the roughly 90 degree arc facing the External Tank (ET).

If it had been somewhere along the other 270 degrees, the slight loss of thrust could have been offset by a small gimbaling of the Main Engines (ME) and the Shuttle could have made orbit with little or no change. In fact at the time of the explosion, the ME’s were already moving to offset the loss of thrust.

Instead the flame from the joint cut into the ET and severed one of the lower struts mounting the SRB, resulting in explosion that destroyed the Shuttle.


20 posted on 01/28/2016 10:36:11 AM PST by chaosagent (Remember, no matter how you slice it, forbidden fruit still tastes the sweetest!)
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To: WhiskeyX
It's always seems bizarre to me that the anniversaries of these three tragedies are all within a few days of each other.
21 posted on 01/28/2016 10:37:34 AM PST by wagglebee ("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
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To: WhiskeyX

Sobering.


22 posted on 01/28/2016 10:44:47 AM PST by EternalVigilance
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To: WhiskeyX

Dad’s was involved in the autopsies. I was involve din trajectory analysis of the debris from space-based sensors. It was the day the future of my entire career field died. The Air Force manned space program never recovered from that event.


27 posted on 01/30/2016 1:45:34 PM PST by CodeToad (Islam should be banned and treated as a criminal enterprise!)
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To: WhiskeyX; flaglady47; oswegodeee; Chigirl 26; danamco; JulieRNR21; mcmuffin; 3D-JOY; ...
I was with neighbors on my backyard patio. I had a TV on my sun porch. We kept an eye on the sky and one on the TV into the house through the open sliding glass doors. We could see the ascending contrail.

Suddenly we knew something was wrong, there was just too much "smoke" and smokey trails and wisps way up there. We ran to the TV and clustered around it, running outside every few moments, then inside to hear the narrative, then outside again.

The white debris contrails filled the sky. It seemed like they were lasting up there forever before trailing and looping down to the horizon. Some stayed up for an hour.

We were all devastated. The neighbors went home to turn on their own TVs.....and to mourn. It was so shocking and stunning. It hit right in the gut.

It was one of those moments in history that remain embedded in your heart and mind forever.

RIP.

Leni

28 posted on 01/30/2016 2:12:31 PM PST by MinuteGal
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To: WhiskeyX
I sent an email out to some of my friends recalling the day:

30 years ago, today, it was crisp, cold, clear day with not a cloud in the sky, in Lakeland, FL. The bluest of blue skies. Because it was so cold out, I chose to watch the Challenger shuttle launch from my office. Watched as the Challenger lifted into the sky but something was amiss. Plumes went in several different directions. Not normal. One of the ladies, watching on TV in the office, ran into my office and said the Challenger had exploded. It was a very sad, and quiet, moment, knowing I had just watched it happen. My prayers immediately went out to the crew and families. Sad day, indeed!

30 posted on 01/31/2016 5:50:02 AM PST by Road Warrior ‘04 (Molon Labe! (Oathkeeper))
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