I was in the hallway during my first year of law school when I heard the news. It had special significance for me.
Two years earlier, I worked a three-month internship as a reporter at the newspaper in Cocoa, Florida. During that internship, I got to attend the launch of Challenger on its fifth mission (STS-41C) on April 6, 1984. I watched the launch from the press viewing area at the Kennedy Space Center. I was close enough that my pant legs ruffled a bit during the launch, video of which is linked below. While there, I interviewed some guys for a sidebar I wrote about a company that was forming to train private shuttle pilots. A week later, I got up in the middle of the night to attend what was supposed to be the dawn landing at KSC, only to have the landing diverted to Edwards AFB in California at the last minute.