Challenger Explosion

[ozzie8]

I was watching live in Kindergarten. Obviously no clue what the hell was happening, but just remember the teacher standing there in shock

 

[hawksurprize]

36 years ago today. Where were you when it exploded? I was in High School in Government class. May the 7 astronauts rest in peace.

Fire station Offutt AFB. Watching live.

 

[DPUboiler]

Also credit to Ronald Reagan and Peggy Noonan for drafting probably the top political speech of the 80's.

 

[stillh8unlv]

Jr in high school, we watched it live in our Current Events/Modern History class. Certainly a core memory - nobody really knew what to say.

I think the teacher (after a long silence) said something about our witness of history and how sometimes it's tragic.

 

[Aardvark86]

Dickinson College. Had just come out of a chem class and was waiting for lunch to open. Probably within an hour of it happening, someone asked me "Did you hear what Christa McCauliffe's last words were?" "no," I replied. The response, "No, I said i wanted a Bud Light."

 

[alaskanseminole]

Any of you Florida peeps witness it live?

Yup. Standing outside of our 6th grade classroom looking up at the sky when it happened. My classmates did the ooo and ahhh when it happened, but my buddy had a transistor radio built into an ink pen and we were listening to the broadcast as we were looking up and knew immediately something was wrong.

We were all brought into the auditorium and our parents were called to come pick us kiddos up early that day.


probably something like this:

 

[hawkifann]

It’s really an amazing story of operational failure. I definitely remember - we were watching it live in my 6th grade class and then the teachers kept the after coverage on for the rest of the day.

 

[Whiskeydeltadeltatango]

I was 3 but it seems like each generation had that JFK/challenger/ 9/11 moment.

 

[Hoosierhawkeye]

I was 3 but it seems like each generation had that JFK/challenger/ 9/11 moment.

Those moments happen fairly regularly. I mean I was also 3 when the Challenger exploded but lets not forget in 2003 the space shuttle Columbia burned up on re-entry. I honestly have no idea why that one isn't remembered as well as Challenger despite it being more recent.

Only thing I can think of is that the videos that we have of it are not as striking as the video of the challenger explosion.

 

[h-hawk]

Living and working in Denver. Was with a group of friends walking outside during break and was told about it as we came back into the office. The manager pulled out a TV in the break room and people could go and catch up on the events for a few minutes whenever they felt like it.

 

[theiacowtipper]

I was on maneuvers at Fort Bragg. Stationed at Fort Campbell but was deployed to Bragg. What I remember about that time frame was that I was in some trouble when I returned to Fort Campbell the next week. I thought maybe I would get out of it because of the explosion but no such luck.

 

[DFSNOLE]

Any of you Florida peeps witness it live?

I was a superintendent at a large construction project in Jupiter Florida and had sent the guys home that morning because it was too cold. I went to a department store to pay a credit card bill and was watching in the parking lot. I didn't realize what I saw was an explosion but instead thought it was just the boosters detaching. It wasn't until I went inside and was told what happened that I realized what I witnessed.

 

[Kinnick.At.Night]

Challenger didn’t explode. The shuttle along with the external fuel tank shifted violently when one of the SRB’s broke free of its aft field joint. The incredible aerodynamic stress of this event caused an instant disintegration of the shuttle and tank. And the burning of the tank’s remaining fuel. The SRBs broke free at the same moment and continued to fire wildly until being remotely destroyed.