[Guenevere]

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.

[tbpiper]

I was standing outside the front of the Operations & Checkout Building watching the launch. It looked very different from all the other launches. DOD launches tended to go more to the north. Scientific launches generally went east. Challenger was tracking more southeast, probably due to loss of thrust from the SRB leak. From our perspective, it looked like it was almost directly overhead so when it came apart, all we could see was a big cloud. It was a few moments before we could see the SRBs.

I don't think anyone us thought they would launch that morning because it was so cold. I remember seeing icicles on the pad from the CCTV feeds.