[HELLRAISER II]

I can remember this like it was yesterday, I was outside my workplace (Eustis, Fl) watching for the shuttle as it went up. When I saw two distinct plumes of smoke I knew that something was wrong. The event had gotten quite a bit of coverage back then because it was sending a local gal who was a teacher with the crew. It was a sad day to say the least.

[Houmatt]

I remember it too.

I was inside a video store in New Paltz, NY, checking out the new releases. I was the only one within the store besides a woman behind the counter, and the radio was on WCBS-FM.

As I was biding my time, a bulletin broke on the radio, announcing there was an apparent explosion aboard the Challenger (and not the Challenger itself) and it was feared all seven astronauts aboard were killed.

I slowly stood up, and turned around to see the equally wide-eyed woman, and we just stared at each other for what seemed like a lifetime.

At that point, a young man came in and asked if the television in the store worked. When the woman said yes, he turned it on to WNBC-TV. They ran the replay of the explosion (and then we knew what the extent was and there was no way anyone could have been alive), and a few seconds went by, before you heard a technician break the silence with the words, "Obviously a major malfunction."

Then they came back to Tom Brokaw, who declared, "Obviously the understatement of the year."

Indeed.

[mombonn]

I can remember this like it was yesterday,

So do I. I was at my desk, watching the market. It was going up; suddenly, everything was going down.

I said, "Something has happened", scrolled to the news headlines, and sat stunned disbelief. My daughter was 5 at the time, knew that a teacher was going into space, and I remember taking her for a walk to talk about it.

[ArrogantBustard]

I was at work, doing battle with the VAX. The secretary, who always had a radio going, called out to all of us that "the Space Shuttle just blew up!" We couldn't believe it; had to listen to the radio jabberers jabber for quite some time for it to really sink in.

[Xenalyte]

I was 17 and home from school (reacting to a new medication). I had the TV on for background noise, and I was studying. (Really, I was.) I called my mother to ask her a question, and she said, "Oh, my God, turn on the TV," and hung up on me.

This is definitely my generation's Kennedy moment.

[meowmeow]

I was in Germany. Another American in my building came to my door because she was listening to German radio and heard the words Space Shuttle Challenger, explosion, and tot (German word for “dead”) all in the same sentence. Neither one of us had a TV so I turned on my radio and translated. It was weird and terrible.