Our heroes: Michael Smith, Dick Scobee, Judith Resnik, Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Gregory Jarvis, and Christa McAuliffe.
Posted on 01/28/2010 12:50:25 PM PST by free1977free
Where were you on January 28th, 1986? Were you in a classroom watching the first teacher go into space? Do you remember how you felt when you saw the Challenger explode soon after it left the earth?
CNN reports that about 17% of Americans were watching when the disaster occurred. One hour later, 85% had heard the news. It is estimated that 48% of 9-13 year-olds were watching.
Teacher Christa Macauliffe was supposed to be the first teacher in space, but she never made it. She died in the explosion along with the six astronauts accompanying her.
Most of today's moms are old enough to remember this event. Today is a good day to share this historical story with your children. It's also a good way to share an emotional story from your own childhood.
If you look carefully at President Reagan’s speech above, you’ll see lots of references to ‘we’ and ‘the American people’, things you’d never see in an Obama speech.
Lord, I really miss Reagan.
I was working in a downtown office. No TV or radio. A coworker told me what happened. I didn’t cry until I saw the pictures that night. Such a shock.
Those of us in the group could see my sun porch television set through sliding glass doors.
We couldn't see the lift-off this time for some reason....and a neighbor suddenly remarked on the somewhat unusual scenes appearing on the TV. Something didn't seem to be right, he said.
Then the TV showed the painfully-strained visages of the McAuliffe parents and other spectators....their anxious eyes all turned skyward as if they were searching for something they didn't want to see.
To make a long story short, we went inside and gathered around the TV. We shortly learned the bad news. We went outside again and looked skyward. Dark contrails and wisps of smoky puffiness were slowly falling toward earth......starkly marring the clear sunny blue sky of a perfect Florida day.
We must have watched these aftermaths of disaster heading earthward for at least a half hour. The debris and smoke clusters definitely must have been very far up because they took so long to come down.
Our group of neighbors then gloomily disbanded and we all went into our homes to watch TV.....each to deal in our own ways with the tragedy which had horribly played out almost over our heads.
Leni
I was just interviewed for a job with one of the companies that supported NASA on the Challenger mission, started work there on Feb 3rd, 1986 and I am still working for them today. I actually just met Scott Parazynski, a former astronaut and current Chairman for the Challenger Center for Space Science Education today, we had lunch. Nice guy, great sense of humor.
One of Reagan’s best speeches! That man could bring tears to your eyes...and did, many times. Commanding, soft spoken, authoritative. There’s been no one like him since. W would’ve done a nice speech I’m sure.
I miss him more than I have the words to describe.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NOKyLgmYn0
Challenger tribute with John Denver music, very moving
Ironic considering how Denver himself later died
I was at CENTCOM HQ in Tampa, heard the news in the watch center, went out into the parking lot and saw the horrible twisted contrails in the east
I was a new hire in a corporate orientation class. Someone in the hall stuck his head through the door and announced the disaster. I had a Sony Watchman TV in my briefcase. 30 people crowded around for an hour watching that tiny screen.
Our company was in the field that day. I remember our squad preparing some fighting positions when our platoon sergeant came by to check on our progress. After a few minutes, he turned to leave to when he said, “Yeah, somebody over in the TOC just said that the shuttle blew up. That’s all I know about it.” Learned in the evening that it blew up just after launch. Didn’t learn any more or see any footage till we got out of the field a few days later.
I was working that day after having both legs crushed in an accident at my brother-in-law’s house helping him wire the house. The alarm installer needed to get behind some 12’ by 4’ sheetrock lain against a wall and ‘we’ pulled it back enough for the guy to get to the box to run the wire. Only my BIL pulled too hard and the 20 sheets of sheetrock pushed me over to the floor and crushed my legs.......just about the worst day I ever had...I still have cringes and shooting pains in one ankle because of it....Think about what 20 sheets of 12’X 4’ X 1/2” sheetrock weigh....I can tell you what it feels like....
I was a 19 year-old receptionist watching the launch with my boss on the t.v. in his office. When the shuttle exploded we were both in shock. I’ll never forget that day.
Where were you on Jan. 28, 1986 ...
Picking up stats at the county courthouse, then hurried back to the newspaper. I believe we hovered around the AP feed and read each bulletin as it came in.
When I went home (still lived with my folks since I was paid $4.25 per hour) my mom said grimly, “Have you seen this? It’s pretty bad ...”
There was a song out about then called “Kyrie Eleison” (sp) (Which I think means “Lord, have mercy ...”) and some of the words included “Kyrie Eleison on the road that I must travel ...”
Tough all the way around. I only hope we learned from it.
We were stationed with the 1946 Communicatons Squadron, West Berlin, Germany. It was dinner time and we had the TV on, AFN was showing the Today Show when they started covering the Challenger disaster.
IIRC, the pilot's and commander's emergency oxygen was found to have been switched on (controls on the rear of their seats). Someone seated behind them survived long enough to reach forward and do that.
I'm pretty sure some of them were alive - if not conscious - when they hit the surface of the Atlantic.
I had worked the night shift, and didn’t wake up until several hours past the tragedy. I flipped on the TV while getting ready for work, and a guy on TV was droning on for a long time about loss of the Shuttle, loss of telemetry, etc... I kept thinking that it had ditched somewhere and they couldn’t find it, because of them using the word loss again and again. And it wasn’t until watching for what seemed like an eternity that they replayed the video and I fully understood the magnitude of what had happened. It was a punch in the gut!
I lived in SoCal and knew many people who were involved with various aspects of Shuttle construction at Rockwell. I’ve still got the original “patch” from the last Challenger mission. Heck, I’ve got all the Rockwell newsletters from the very first (white tank) shuttle launch. Those were proud times to be an American!
I was at the doctor, getting a fractured finger put in a splint.
I found out about it when I got home and turned on the TV. I remember not quite comprehending at first what was being said.
It seemed unbelievable to me.
I was in high school at the time, and someone mentioned in one of my classes that there was an "explosion" involving the space shuttle. I wasn't even aware of the launch that day and assumed it had something to do with an issue with a fuel tank on the ground.
We had a half-day at school for some reason that day, and I saw the details on the news when I stopped in a deli for a sandwich on my way home.
One image that I found haunting was a two-page photo in one of the weekly news magazines a few days later. It showed a blown-up image of the explosion, and there was a red circle on the image showing what was clearly a fully-intact cockpit and crew cabin falling out of the sky.
I watched the Challenger explode live and in person from the parking lot of Titusville High School in FL. We knew immediately that it had exploded when we saw two trails instead of one. Most of us were silent for several minutes. Many of our teachers had applied to go on the flight. My history teacher was a runner-up.
A lifetime later I watched the Columbia explode over the skies of my DFW home. I was taking my daughter to gymnastics class. I was heartbroken. When I told the other parents inside what had happened, nobody even cared. They just looked at me.
I was driving into MacDill AFB one morning and was listening to a launch on the radio. I looked east shortly after liftoff and SAW the glow of the boosters climbing skyward. Nobody ever believes me when I tell them. Thanks for confirming I'm not completely looney :-)
Sort of ironic now that Barry has stabbed the space program through the heart.
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