Posted on 01/28/2005 5:17:59 PM PST by silverleaf
Edited on 01/28/2005 7:01:57 PM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]
http://www.cnn.com/resources/video.almanac/1986/challenger/challenger.lg.mov
The 25th mission in the Space Shuttle program, flown by the Challenger, ended tragically with the loss of its seven crew members and destruction of the vehicle when it exploded shortly after launch.
Back row from left to right: Ellison Onizuka, mission specialist; Christa McAuliffe, payload specialist; Gregory Jarvis, payload specialist; and Judith Resnik, mission specialist.
Front row from left to right: Michael Smith, pilot; Francis Scobee, commander; and Ronald McNair, mission specialist.
I was living at home at Black Lake... I watched the launch live on that little dinky TV we had in the kitchen... and I called Dad at the office to tell him about it.
Calling Dad was also the first thing I did when the WTC was hit. We were still on the phone when the second tower was hit.
Calling Dad is just what I do when anything happens.
Ping list for the discussion of the politics and social (and sometimes nostalgic) aspects that directly effects Generation Reagan / Generation-X (Those born from 1965-1981) including all the spending previous generations (i.e. The Baby Boomers) are doing that Gen-X and Y will end up paying for.
Freep mail me to be added or dropped. See my home page for details and previous articles.
I was in Orlando at Nuclear Power School. I had just finished a Thermodynamics exam and looked out the window and saw the plume with a strange "Y" at the top. "That's not supposed to look like that" I thought - talk about an understatement.
I was in Florida to view the launch.
It was delayed for several days due to the cold. While waiting, I started having nightmares about watching the launch from the beach and having it take off and turn around and crash next to us on the beach.
After two nights of these nightmares, I left.
It crashed the next day.
I just had cable TV installed, turned it on for the first time, and saw the explosion on the news.
Although I kept the cable for several years at that address, I have never again had cable installed. I don't want anything bad to happen...
I was in court doing an adoption for a wonderful woman of a special needs child when the baliff came in and told us. And, it's my father's birthday. He would have been 93 if he were alive today. He's been gone 13 years.
I owned my own business and was delivering some equipment to LaVerne University. I heard it on the radio and parked, then ran into my contact there, telling him to get a TV.
He pulled one out and we saw the replay -- then he notified the administration and he and I spent the next hour putting TVs into every public spot that could get reception or was hooked up to cable.
I'll never forget it.
Moon landing needs to be there too.
Thank you so much for that link.
Wow 19 years already, must make me old.
Nice new banner for the space ping BTW.
Thank you...
My dear husband had died suddenly a few weeks earlier and I could so identify with the grief of the astronauts' families.
I hope life has been kind to them in the years since.
Me, too. I close my eyes when I realize they're about to show it on TV.
I was a 2nd grader at St. Simons Elementary School on St. Simons Island, GA. Our teacher brought the TV in and turned it on and we watched the rest of the day. I went home and watched it over and over again, but today I cannot watch it.
However, it gave me insight to know what to do on September 11th. I was teaching Physical Science. The news got to me during my planning period, just seconds before the bell rang to start 2nd period. My students came in, and I told them that we had evidently just had a terrorist attack, and two planes had just hit the twin towers of the WTC. I told my students, "My parents remember where they were when JFK was shot. I can remember where I was when the Challenger disaster occurred. You will remember where you are, right now, for the rest of your life." We turned the TV on and watched.
Read the book, it's even better :)
It actually made me want to be an engineer...and look where I ended up.
Vintage Peggy Noonan.
With Columbia, I imagined knowing death was coming as you careened into the atmosphere as your craft broke up around you. I was one of those who, post launch as she orbited awaiting a fiery death, was fearful damage was underestimated by those NASA experts, engineers and scientists. When she was lost, I was shaken. That no indictments came, that even post Challenger, arrogance ruled is an incomprehensible horror.
I remember. I was in line at the chow hall at Griffiss AFB, NY when I heard the people in the line talking about it. Didn't believe it until I got to the end of the line and saw the cashier in tears.
Bullsh!t. They knew it was too cold to fly. They had scrubbed the launch a number of times already. If it had been warmer; there would've been no accident.
Political, media pressure was on because of the "teacher-in-space" stunt. Hubris, arrogance and disregard for human life is what caused Challenger's destruction and the death of the crew. That same human folly contributed to Columbia's loss as well. This time getting Israel's first astronaut up and back. There's a good chance if the enviros hadn't gotten the insulation changed, Columbia's loss might've been averted. That doesn't account for the idiocy of NASA dismissing the ice's impact damage, inability to mount a rescue, abort the launch, etc.
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