Space Shuttle Challenger

1. Chad
   January 28th, 2008 at 10:53 am

   I was in 6th grade health class, and we had gathered around a TV sitting on one of those rickety A/V carts. The gym classes had just come in to watch as well, and then: BLAMMO! Suddenly, my generation had its first "Where were you when" moments.

2. HildyJ
   January 28th, 2008 at 11:03 am

   I was in the second grade. They'd set up a TV in an empty room across the hall, and we all went in to watch. They'd really pumped up the "There's a teacher in there!" thing, so we were all more emotionally involved than we would have been otherwise.

   I don't remember much about our reaction (we were, of course, shocked and sad, but I don't know that anybody cried) or how my teacher handled it.

3. Louise
   January 28th, 2008 at 11:04 am

   Sitting at my desk at a stock brokerage firm checking out a client's portfolio on my Quotron.

   Quotron would scroll important market news at the top and suddenly "Space Shuttle Challenger has exploded after take-off" came across the top of the screen. All around the office you could hear, "sh*t" and other expletives.

   Then immediately the guys began to talk about what stocks to dump. Make profit, or at least minimize loss.

   That was when I became certain that job wasn't for me. My initial response to such a major tragedy just wasn't brokerly enough. My clients would always be behind the curve due to my responses or lack thereof.

4. K Mann
   January 28th, 2008 at 11:08 am

   I grew up in Concord, NH. Christa McAuliffe was a substitute teacher when I attended Concord High School (she became full time after I left), and was a friend of my mother.

   In 1986, I was out of college, in NYC, looking for work. It was exciting to follow the story for all those months -- watching Christa make the final "cut", and seeing glimpses of her and my hometown on TV.

   I was looking forward to watching the launch live. But the launch was delayed for several days, and -- as luck would have it -- I started a new job on the very day of the actual launch.

   It came over the radio playing at work. At that moment (and for many weeks to come), I had a profound connection with my hometown -- one that I had shaken the dust from many years ago -- and I longed to be back there.

   I called my mother, then a teaching assistant in the Concord NH public school system (elementary school), about 5 minutes after it happened. In retrospect, I'm amazed that I was able to talk to her. She was flustered and obviously had her hands full; I could her schoolchildren crying in the background. So we didn't talk for long.

   It was difficult for me that day, being the "new guy" at the office. Everyone was talking about what had happened. And I wanted to chime in with "Hey, *I'm* from Concord. *I* knew Christa McAuliffe." But, for some reason, I just kept it all to myself.

5. Therese
   January 28th, 2008 at 11:09 am

   6th grade band practice. Another kid had gone to the office to drop something off, heard the news and came back and told the rest of us. There was a general sense of disbelief until I came home and saw for myself.

   I agree with Chad--it was one of my first "where were you when..." moments, second only to when Reagan was shot.

6. Kirk Hall
   January 28th, 2008 at 11:14 am

   I'll never forget....I was working @ Sam's Wholesale Club sweeping the floors in my area (electronics) in front of all these TV sets.Every single set was showing the launch and I was milking my duties to make sure I got to see it...When the accident happened it was the first time something that I saw on TV affected me in a deep emotional way.I felt panicked,disbelief that what I had seen was real and then very sad.My fellow employees and I spent most of the day monitoring the sets to find out details of what had caused such a tragedy.

7. Bonnie
   January 28th, 2008 at 11:19 am

   Surprisingly, the Challenger explosion was one of my first bigger-world memories. I was four and a half, but I clearly remember watching the news on the television and seeing tapes of the explosion. Being four, it didn't really mean a whole lot to me other than it upset my mother, but I do remember it.

8. madie
   January 28th, 2008 at 11:30 am

   in 2nd grade watching it on tv. the teacher ran to the tv and shut it off as soon as she realized what was happening. they sent us home early that day. my mom had to explain what happened to me. i still get weepy eyed when i see images of it or stupid made-for-tv movies about it.

9. badgirl
   January 28th, 2008 at 11:33 am

   Was between college classes at the apartment catching lunch. I stood at the tv and said to my roommate, "Oh look, they're about to launch the shuttle". She wandered in about halfway through the launch and then the accident occurred and slowly we turned to each other with that "look" of "oh no". Very sickening.

10. Hazel Shade
    January 28th, 2008 at 11:45 am

    I was about one-- and had just started saying full (or close to full sentences. My mother had the television on all day watching the coverage, but figured I was too busy playing in the other room to notice.

    But when my father came home from work that night, I ran to great him at the door, stood in front of him and announced, in my most serious voice. "Spaceship go boom. All dead."

    I don't remember this of course-- but my mother does, and it still chokes her up to tell the story.

11. Chris Cz
    January 28th, 2008 at 11:47 am

    I was in the second grade - Mrs. Barrett's class. In the months leading up to the take-off, the school had gone classroom by classroom writing letters to McAuliffe telling her how proud we were of her being the first teacher in space. I remember our letter was written on that big brown paper used to help kids work on their penmanship with capital and lower case letters. It sat on the chalkboard ledge for weeks before they were all collected and sent out.

    On the afternoon of the launch, we had an inside recess due to the weather, but they did not broadcast the Challenger on TV's or the PA system. We just sat playing and running around the classroom - oblivious to everything but toys and games. I was showing off my new Batmobile toy that I got and brought for show and tell when all of a sudden our teacher showed up and the news went around class that the shuttle had exploded. My audience of a couple of kids split and joined the others in the middle of the room - circling around Mrs. Barrett. I watched from the corner and eventually followed.

    I still have this surreal image in my mind of this old solemn-faced lady standing larger than life amongst a sea of second graders all chanting and barking, 'The Challenger blew up! The Challenger blew up!'

    I currently teach English at the secondary leve and prior to reading Hamlet, the curriculum had us read about the circumstances surrounding the Challenger tragedy. The point was to illustrate the process of making decisions and the factors that lend themselves to tragedy. It was quite the old man moment for me to sit their before a bunch of 16 and 17 year olds and reflect with the "I remember where I was when . . . " story were all talking about.

    It makes me wonder what my kids' "where were you when . . ." will be? How tragic will it be and to what degree will it affect their lives. Will I be around to comfort them, or if I'm still around, will they have to comfort me? Anyway, I'm going off the deep end here so I'll stop.

    Bye

12. Chris Cz
    January 28th, 2008 at 11:50 am

    An English teacher always apologizes for his or her typos. A GOOD English teacher checks for typos before submitting things to be read. Therefore, I am sorry.

13. frugalforlife
    January 28th, 2008 at 11:51 am

    I was headed into 6th grade science class and the teacher was just standing on the middle of the room dumbfounded. We finally found out what happened and we were able to go down to the lunchroom and watch some of it on the setup tv (replays)during class.

14. KG
    January 28th, 2008 at 11:51 am

    I was in the second grade, getting ready for school. In my house, watching the space shuttle take off of on the morning news was like watching the New Year's Eve Ball drop. Anyway, all the teachers in my school made the launch a major event because of Christa McAuliffe.

    We watched the shuttle take off, burst into flames and my mother and grandmother in shock, sending me off to school with the words "what a shame" repeating over and over in my head. I was pretty much numb for the rest of the day because I couldn't even fathom how a teacher could just die like that. It was really sad.

15. zantimisfit
    January 28th, 2008 at 11:53 am

    I was a Jr. in high school. As I walked into my history class, my teacher was standing in the doorway. He looked at me and said, "The space shuttle just blew up." Thinking he was kidding with me, I guffawed and said, "It did not." Then he looked at me and said, "No, seriously, it did."

16. Ant
    January 28th, 2008 at 11:53 am

    Didn't see it live, but recorded on the news (replays).

17. Hiddnfox
    January 28th, 2008 at 12:08 pm

    wow, another for the seconf grade. My class and all the other classes for my grade were sitting in our room watching it on TV when KABLOOM! it exploded. our tewachers just sort of froze out of shock for a minute before they turned off the TV. I think it ruined one kid too. He wanted to be an astronaut since I knew him. memorizing all the planets and crap like that. He never spoke of wanting to be an astronaut after that incident.

18. Chris Wexler
    January 28th, 2008 at 12:08 pm

    I was in 7th Grade Life Science. I also remember thinking, well, its a rocket and the reason that Astronauts are so cool is that they risk blowing themselves up everytime they go up.

    It seems I was a very cold hearted 7th grader.

19. Stefanie
    January 28th, 2008 at 12:10 pm

    I was a senior in high school. They announced it over the loudspeaker; the kids were stunned, but the teachers were horrified and devastated.
    Nobody could teach that day, but they were stuck with us. We spent most of our classes in self-study, trying not to make waves because we knew our teachers were hiding out in their offices and back rooms, trying to keep their shit together.

20. ruby
    January 28th, 2008 at 12:11 pm

    I was in 9th grade sitting in the library. I was one of those geeks who sat in the library during study halls to read Science Digest. The librarian and I sat alone in the library watching the shuttle go up...when it expoded, we just sat there side by side. We didn't know what to say. The look in her eyes stays with me even now when I think of it.

    One more sad memory of the 80's for me.

21. MidwestMedic
    January 28th, 2008 at 12:13 pm

    8th Grade. I was lucky enough to be in my schools first computer class. Given that we tended to be the honor roll type students and the only students in the class, we got the pirk of doing some special projects including using Compuserve and talking about the news. Well, the day was a big day and the TV was on.

    Then it happened.

    The main news events I can think of right now for while I was in grade school were Mt St. Helens erruption, Challenger explosion and Desert Shield/Desert Storm. where were you when....

22. Mike Brown
    January 28th, 2008 at 12:13 pm

    1st grade, I was home sick that day (chicken pox). I was laying on the couch in front of the bay window watching the launch. I was already a bit out of it from being sick so it really took me a bit to process what was seeing. It was awkward because the whole death concept is a bit difficult at that age. I remember that event so vividly though.

23. JamesG
    January 28th, 2008 at 12:14 pm

    I was at work that morning. The person in the office next to mine, who had been listening to the launch on the radio, ran in saying that the Shuttle had exploded. "You're full of it," I replied "that can't happen." Such was the confidence we all used to have in our space program.

    Fast-forward four years, and I had become a NASA employee myself. One of my assignments was cataloging the archives of flight 51-L (NASA's designation for the final Challenger mission), including documents, still and motion photography, and telemetry data. It was an emotional and stressful -- not to mention highly politically charged -- job. Although declassified, and subject to Freedom of Information Act requests, many of the documents were considered too shocking or embarrassing for public consumption and there were many within the Agency trying to control access. I only lasted about two years in that job.

24. JT
    January 28th, 2008 at 12:21 pm

    The student center at UNC-Chapel Hill. Got wrapped up in it the rest of the day.

25. Louise
    January 28th, 2008 at 12:24 pm

    @JamesG: many of the documents were considered too shocking or embarrassing for public consumption

    Tell! Tell!

    I used to suspect that there had been political pressure from the White House to get the shuttle into the air that day in spite of potential risks. Reagan was giving his State of the Union address that night. Certainly he would have loved to make references to "our brave astronauts orbiting the globe" and the first teacher in space.

    And obviously NASA would want to keep the White House happy, considering the budget process. But that's simply too cynical an explanation to be true, isn't it?

    As it was, Reagan had to postpone the SOTU, and had to talk about their sacrifice.

26. Ray Randell
    January 28th, 2008 at 12:35 pm

    We had just been let into our third grade class and I saw a TV at the front. I was not aware that there was going to be a shuttle launch that day. Our teacher did not say a word. We sat down she turned it on and we watched the shuttle climb into the sky and then separate into two plumes before breaking apart.
    We all looked at our teacher but she still didn't say a word. She turned off the TV and sent us outside to play.

27. Patricio
    January 28th, 2008 at 12:40 pm

    I was watching the launch live on TV in my 11th grade biology class in Florida. Some of the girls started crying...it was I all I could do to not shed a tear too. There was just something so wrong about all that hope and joy and progress and human potential being blown to pieces in an instant.

    Later that day the super-Christian lunch lady, who was visibly upset by the whole thing, told me that "if God had of intended man to fly He would have given him wings...wh never should have gone up there in the first place". This made me mad, and I told her that if everyone was like her we would have all still been living in caves. She was never nice to me again after that.

28. Amy
    January 28th, 2008 at 12:41 pm

    I was in 2nd grade as well, and the teacher had brought a TV into the classroom so we could all watch the launch. I still can vividly remember seeing the image of the explosion, and even at that young age I wondered why we were watching the disturbing footage over and over as it was being reported on the news. Most kids were confused or upset, but of course it didn't take long before the really nasty tasteless jokes began. "What does NASA stand for? Need Another Seven Astronauts." Awful.

29. keeter
    January 28th, 2008 at 12:46 pm

    Junior year of high school. In chemistry class, after lunch, another teacher came in to tell my teacher what had happened. I got home around 2:30pm and turned on the tv.

    We had JUST got cable that week, so this was my first experience with a major news event across all the major networks, CNN other outlets and everything else. And they played that explosion over and over and over and over and over...

30. anonymous
    January 28th, 2008 at 12:54 pm

    I remember coming home from elementary school and being bummed that cartoons were not on, it was all news.

31. Chris
    January 28th, 2008 at 12:57 pm

    I'm not sure I remember where I was. I was eight and the Shuttle exploded mere weeks after I met Dick Scobee and got his autograph at a function at Travis Air Force Base in CA.

    Chilling then, chilling now

32. Sid Morrison
    January 28th, 2008 at 1:06 pm

    I am quite the geezer on this forum. I was a sophomore in college and had just walked into the Student Union where a huge crowd of people were watching the news report on a projection TV.

    What was most telling after the tragedy was how removed from reality the NASA administration had become. They had figured teh odds of catastrophic failure were tens of thousands to 1. Richard Feynman later estimated them to be closer to 1 in 100. Well, we've had 120 shuttle flights and blown up 2 of them, so Feynman's estimate was pretty good, perhaps even a tad optimistic. Even if the basic technology is dated, it is still a very complicated system, with many paths to catastrophy.

    I say this not to diminish the work the brave men and women do who fly on it, but to question NASA arrogance -- AGAIN putting random schoolteachers (& Sen. Glenn) into space on publicity stunts intended solely to secure more public enthusiasm (i.e. congressional budget support for NASA). There shouldn't be anyone on the missions who really isn't *needed* for mission success. Sooner or later, they'll knock off another gradeschool teacher ... Let there be no doubts. Spaceflight was and remains very risky business.

33. Scotty Lees
    January 28th, 2008 at 1:10 pm

    My 7th grade science teacher was in the running to be the first teacher in space. On launch day, all our classes were canceled, and the entire 7th grade gathered around 4 t.v.s in four classrooms. I happened to be in the room with my science teacher. I remember how excited she was, almost as if she was going. It was a celebration of science and human spirit, and I seemed to recognize that even then.
    When the explosion happened, many of us looked to her for some explanation, but she could only sob softly and shake her head. I learned a lot about being human and fragile that day.

34. beatgrl
    January 28th, 2008 at 1:11 pm

    Mr. Peterson's 10th grade English Class. We were not watching TV at the time but pulled in one of those sets on an AV cart to watch the replays. I knew at the time that it would be one of those "where were you when you heard" moments. (And I was in the bathtub when Reagan was shot BTW)

35. MJG
    January 28th, 2008 at 1:13 pm

    I was in 4th Grade in a suburb of Dayton, Ohio. We did not watch it on TV, but it was announced over the PA and we were released for the day. Mother was already outside waiting for me, she and her staff had left early. I didn't know what was really going on until I got home and watched the news. After about 15 minutes of reports, I went outside for the remainder of the day. Didn't do anything, just moped around and swung on the porch swing. Pretty shocking, that. No one was really themselves for a few weeks afterward. It was pretty much my first "where were you when...?" moment, too.

36. Sara
    January 28th, 2008 at 1:15 pm

    I was in Recreation building at college (University of Michigan - Dearborn) watching the launch on the TV in the lounge downstairs. I vividly remember the moments of disbelief the followed the explosion. Even though the cameras were still on it and we were seeing it as it happened, we still couldn't believe it.

37. Deb G.
    January 28th, 2008 at 1:32 pm

    I was teaching a college public relations course when a student came in and told us what had happened. The university had set up televisions in the cafeteria, and we stood, open-mouthed, watching the explosion, mostly everyone crying.

    That was the last group I taught where even the freshmen had been alive when we'd last walked on the moon.

38. Richard
    January 28th, 2008 at 1:33 pm

    Today is my birthday!

    'Old enough to remember'? Now that hurts.

    I was in junior high when it happened. We watched the entire thing unfold on a TV screen. We were allowed to watch in our classrooms because a teacher had been chosen to go on the space shuttle.

39. Kevin
    January 28th, 2008 at 1:53 pm

    My brothers and I were all 3 of us playing hookey from school. Don't remember why. We were staying with my aunt in Jacksonville.

    I was in 4th grade. Couldn't believe it. You could see the smoke in the sky all the way up in Jax.

40. Roadtrip
    January 28th, 2008 at 2:14 pm

    I was 5 ... but I remember it clearly. I was sitting in the basement of a family friend's house while my Mom was upstairs having coffee with a friend. I was watching TV - probably upset because my morning cartoons had been replaced by a shuttle launch. Don't get me wrong, rocket ships are cool, but news coverage of shuttle launches are pretty boring when you are 5! I remember watching and getting excited by the count-down. And then ... we all know what happened. I ran upstairs and told my Mom that the shuttle had exploded. She repeatedly told me that space shuttles make lots of fire when they are launching, that's how they get to space. How wrong she was ... she came downstairs to see the TV and she began to cry. It was the first time that I ever saw my Mom cry ... that, more than the shuttle exploding, is my most vivid memory of the day.

41. Ashtronaut
    January 28th, 2008 at 2:15 pm

    I was in 10th grade. We were all especially interested in the shuttle program, as our 10th grade Geometry teacher, Mr. Markel, had been in the running for the program.

    I was standing in the library, next to Mr. Markel, watching the television, when it exploded. Mr. Markel ran from the room crying.

42. belled27
    January 28th, 2008 at 2:15 pm

    I was in the second grade and don't really remember much about anything that happened in school. It was after school when I got home that the image of the "Y" in white smoke will be forever the reminder. I few years later, in the 6th grade, when another shuttle was launched, every classroom had a TV to watch it live. I remember watching my homeroom teacher silently praying to herself for a successful launch. I believe it was.

43. cyndilou
    January 28th, 2008 at 2:15 pm

    Mrs. Pena's 6th grade Geography class -- at least I think that was the subject, I had her for two classes since she taught the TIPS students. We were watching on a TV brought down from the A/V room because we had submitted her name to be the teacher on that flight -- I remember thinking what a good thing it was that she wasn't chosen after all, and then feeling horrible for all the kids who were Christa McAuliffe's students.

44. Shelby
    January 28th, 2008 at 2:18 pm

    I was a freshman at Southern Illinois U., walking into my Thompson Point dorm, Steagall Hall, and I saw immediate coverage on the tv in the lounge. Made my stomach turn and my heart break. A lot of college crap we called "fun" seemed totally worthless that day.

45. unohav_1
    January 28th, 2008 at 2:19 pm

    I was in the third grade. They had a TV set up in the auditorium and I was walking through as it occurred. It took me a little bit of time to figure out why the principal was crying.

46. Dan
    January 28th, 2008 at 2:20 pm

    Sophomore high school year. During our morning break I went back to the band room to get something and saw a bunch of friends standing around a radio, very sad. They told me. I remember the shock and sadness very well.

    Then in my math class immediately after I remember our teacher - who was near retirement - beginning to cry over the news. And a bunch of kids who sat in front of me cracking rude jokes and laughing about it. I remember being so angry at them but just sitting there silently.

47. SusanChristine
    January 28th, 2008 at 2:23 pm

    I was in college, just about to leave my dorm and go to class. I had the TV on, and was watching when it happened. I ended up blowing off class that day.

48. Eliza
    January 28th, 2008 at 2:29 pm

    Home sick from school watching daytime TV in the den.

49. kats
    January 28th, 2008 at 2:41 pm

    second grade. Also in "computer lab" which was 4 apple computers in the library that we weren't really allowed to touch. My kidergarten teacher was there, she went to school with Christa McAuliffe and we had a giant signed photograph in the hallway. I'm legally blind so I couldn't see what happened very well but the tv went off instantly and two teachers started crying. no one explained it to us which made me really angry. i went home and asked to be allowed to watch the news instead of homework.

50. Dan
    January 28th, 2008 at 2:52 pm

    I was at work in the medical repair shop at Balboa Naval Hospital. The guys and gals who fix medical electronics are, predictably, serious geeks, so we had our lounge television tuned to the shuttle launch. There were about 10 of us standing around watching.

    It's always thrilling when they do the countdown, and the television coverage was so beautiful. Then things went horribly wrong, and the cameras caught the terrible explosion and breakup.

    Very moving, but I remember my immediate concern was for all the children watching. The fact that a teacher was onboard was so hyped and publicized, I knew that hundreds of thousands of children had just been traumatized.

51. Mark
    January 28th, 2008 at 3:03 pm

    I was in junior high school when it happened. The only thing that stood out in my mind is the constant replaying of the explosion on the news channels. You can only see that so many times and start to get apathetic about it.

52. Al
    January 28th, 2008 at 3:04 pm

    I was buying a copy of Dire Straits' Brothers In Arms for my brother's birthday watching the shuttle launch on about 20 massed TVs in the shop's audio/visual dept. seeing it on one TV was probably bad enough, but to see it played over on a shop full of screens was surreal. Hardly anyone was paying attention when it was launched - 5 minutes later you had to fight (figuratively speaking) to see a screen.

53. dan
    January 28th, 2008 at 3:11 pm

    I was 4 years old and living in Florida at the time. Whenever there was a launch we could see it from our front yard. My mom told me to go outside and watch for the shuttle so I did. I clearly remember seeing the huge puffs of white smoke from the explosions.

54. Ahavekamm
    January 28th, 2008 at 3:23 pm

    I was home from school that day for snow or something. My mother called me from work and told me to turn on the tv and see if what one of their salesmen had said was true: that the space shuttle had exploded. I had been watching a tape of a Mel Brooks movie when she called. Unfortunately, I now always associate that movie with this day and the sad events.

55. Tony LaRocca
    January 28th, 2008 at 3:37 pm

    William Annin Middle School, in NJ, in science class. The principal told us over the loudspeaker, and we had a minute of silence. Later, the Social Studies teacher told us that the USSR had called the president to give their condolences, but they were probably laughing behind our backs. Sign of the times.

56. stacia
    January 28th, 2008 at 3:44 pm

    also in 2nd grade. We didn't watch it in our class, but I remember vividly walking down the hallway going to the bathroom or something, and a third grade girl came tearing down the hall saying "The Challenger exploded! the Challenger exploded!!"

    Living in Florida, we watched the shuttles launch all the time, so something like that was just so scary and wierd. My mom took a picture of the TV that day... that burned in your brain Y-shaped smoke trail.

    My grandparents had been to visit us and flew out of town that day. They were actually in the air when it happened, and if I remember correctly, could see it from their aircraft. I do remember them telling us that there was a priest or minister on the plane who led everyone in prayer. I guess they must have made some sort of announcement over the speakers.

    Every time I watch a shuttle launch, I hold my breath and pray that this never happens again.

57. Blackthornhiei
    January 28th, 2008 at 3:58 pm

    I was at home, waiting for the school bus and was watching the launch on the news (our country had "pirated" cable tv back then).

    I don't remember anything of the rest of the day. Mom says I was pretty much blank in school.

58. Jenny
    January 28th, 2008 at 4:32 pm

    I was in 6th grade. They brought us all into the library to watch it and I remember my principal cried. He'd almost been chosen as the teacher picked to go up in the shuttle.

59. Joe Boulden
    January 28th, 2008 at 4:44 pm

    The Virginia company I worked for at the time had printed a decal which was on one of the mission experiments.

    We were all gathered around a little black and white TV with a coat hanger ariel, in the production manager's office, watching the launch.

    They let us off early from work. My bus wouldn't come for hours so I walked the 6 miles home.

    I'll never forget how cold it felt that day in the South-East.
    They should never have launched.

60. amy
    January 28th, 2008 at 4:57 pm

    i was in 1st grade at Firestone Elementary school in Akron, Ohio, where Judith Resnik is from. We were all gathered around the television in our classroom. Teachers were crying, some who had known her, and I just remember being very young and silent.

61. Shane
    January 28th, 2008 at 5:41 pm

    I was a sophomore in High School and I remember deciding to skip that day.

    I was sitting in a coffee shop having a mug of joe 'cause it was freezing outside. They had the TV on with the coverage of the launch and most people weren't paying any attention since by '86 shuttle missions had become so common place.

    I just remember hearing one of the waitresses say "Oh my God, I think the shuttle just blew up!" and I looked up to see that huge balloon looking cloud with the two propulsion rockets doing their own thing.

    Everybody immediately started paying attention to what was going on and you could have heard a pin drop in the joint.

    I must have been there for two hours getting as much information as I could before leaving and I just remember walking around in a daze after that.

    I found a mission pin at a flea market in 1996 and I have had it on my bulletin board ever since.

    I remember having the same lost feelings when I heard about the Columbia disaster five years ago.

62. Mike Harris
    January 28th, 2008 at 5:46 pm

    No kidding here ... the Science teacher comes in, talks in hushed tones to my English teacher, and they both exit. As they pass by my chair, my sixth-grade wiseass mouth lets out:

    "What happened? Did the SPACE SHUTTLE blow up or somethin'?!"

63. Bo
    January 28th, 2008 at 6:35 pm

    I was a senior in H.S. and it happened during my "free period" (when you were a senior and had enough credits, you had an hour to do whatever). I lived a block from school, so I was home catching up on homework with the TV on in the background.

    I took a break to watch it.

    It really bothered me how much the tv feed kept cutting to the faces of all the people there, especially some of the family. I know you can only show the plume so much, but still...

    (My first "where were you" momemt was when Elvis died: playing w/ Evel Knievel action figure and his Winnebago)

64. Mel
    January 28th, 2008 at 7:08 pm

    I was in the girls' locker room, having a group violin lesson. (The Diocese really valued the string program...) I was annoyed, because I had to miss the launch - and this was in the day when they were new and exciting, so everything stopped when they happened.

    We were in the middle of some silly little piece, when Sister Mary Whatshername came on the PA and asked everyone to pray for the astronauts and their families. My teacher got a weird expression and said that perhaps we ought to return to our classrooms.

    I crossed the parking lot to my building, and entered the hallway. The thing that I remember to this day is the *silence*. I mean, when have you EVER been in a school that did not have some kind of ambient noises?

    I stood in the hallway, which was echoing only with the faint sounds of televisions playing in every classroom.

65. monica
    January 28th, 2008 at 8:12 pm

    i was watching with my mom and sister. it was around noon on a tuesday , i worked noon till 8 on tuesdays then, i was eating lunch getting ready to leave and we just all looked at each other and i couldnt finish my lunch. it was surreal:(

66. skreidle
    January 28th, 2008 at 8:15 pm

    2nd grade; they took us out into the common area of the "pod"--the school had two circular wings off of the main area--and turned on a TV (on one of those tall rolling stands) off to one side, and we all stood around and watched. I don't think I realized the import of the event until years later, but yeah, I remember.

67. Zeenie
    January 28th, 2008 at 8:30 pm

    I was in Mrs. McNamara's 4th grade class at Blossom Hill Elementary School in Los Gatos, California. We had just come back from GATE. My illegitimate step-second-cousin (or is that first cousin once removed?) was on the back-up crew for the flight. Mrs. McNamara's right pinky finger was painted with gold leaf, but the rest of her fingernails were rust-red with gold shimmer. And she was wearing a kelly-green tent dress. The principal came in and whispered something to Mrs. McNamara. Things were suddenly very serious. She told us that something very sad had occurred, and that some of us might feel very overwhelmed and that the school would help us reach our parents if we needed to. Then she said that the space shuttle Challenger had exploded. A television was wheeled into the room on a cart so we could all watch the thing happen over and over and over again. Have no idea what I was wearing.

68. little gator
    January 28th, 2008 at 8:54 pm

    I was 28 and at home alone. My mother phoned and said "I heard the space shuttle just exploded."

    I ended the call as soon as I could do so politely. I was annoyed-didn't she have more sense than to believe a wild story like that? Yes, an awful lot of us had that level of trust in NASA. As a friend said, that day "we all lost our virginity in space travel."

    So I turned on the tv and left it on CNN for hours. I didn't go to work that day(an animal hospital) but a coworker was in the darkroom developing an xray when she heard others talkign about it. She knew it was something awful but couldn't make out the words till she came out.

    We'd being renovating and my stronest memory is of weeping, staring at the tv with a tray of drywall compound in my hands. And some poor man, I forget who, a relative of one of the astronauts. They kept showing him crying till he drooled.

    When my husband came home we watched it all over again. He'd known the basic facts but couldnt learn any more while at work.

    Less than 2 weeks later I met the friend I quoted above. Christa McAuliffe's cousin was her landlord.

    As far as old enough to remember goes, I was in first grade when JFK was killed. I remember a lot less of that, but it's in my memory too.

69. Bryan
    January 28th, 2008 at 9:12 pm

    I was in the Air Force, stationed at Williams AFB in Arizona. I slept late because my wife and I had been up most of the night with our son born 1/17. My wife got me out of bed telling me something had happened. We had seen the shuttle before when it was being transported across the country on the back of of a 747. My wife being a teacher, felt the loss of McAuliffe heavily. I mourned for them all. Years later we went to the Museum and Planetarium named for her in New Hampshire.

70. Eva
    January 28th, 2008 at 9:35 pm

    I was in third grade, and we were so excited, waiting for one of the science lessons to be broadcast. I went to a poor-ass elementary school in Louisiana which has since been condemned, and it was a major deal that we had the TV in our classroom that day. The set hadn't been turned on yet, as we were working on some other lesson we had to finish first.

    We missed seeing the launch, but I will never forget the elderly janitor poking his head in the door, wearing a very out-of-place wide grin, for some reason, telling us simply "that space shuttle exploded." Our teacher, who was very neurotic and on one memorable occasion spent an entire afternoon pacing the classroom and telling us that Qaddaffi was going to bring about WWIII, turned on the news and we watched the reports for the rest of the school day. Then I went home and watched them on TV there, too, morbidly fascinated and horrified.

71. Jim
    January 28th, 2008 at 10:11 pm

    I was walking across a street on my way home from class at RPI in Troy, NY. A friend told me as I was crossing, and I just stood there in the middle of the road for a while as it sank in.

72. donna
    January 28th, 2008 at 10:42 pm

    Just got done with an exercise class at my gym, which happened to be in a mall. Walked by the storefronts to grab some lunch and it was on the TVs. My heart sank.

    That afternoon when I went to pick my son up from daycare, his sitter was still crying. It was a very traumatic and sad day.

    My son is 22 this year. And I am still sorry for the loss of so much of America's technology and engineering prowess. The decision to launch in the cold weather was a horrible case of management over riding engineering's better sense - and it has been the problem with so much of our economy.

73. CF
    January 28th, 2008 at 11:02 pm

    I remember being on the playground in elementary school and hearing the news. Everyone was really shocked and sad. It was two days before my 7th birthday and I felt like my birthday wasn't as happy that year because of the tragedy.

74. Mike, Cincinnati OH
    January 28th, 2008 at 11:08 pm

    I was in the 3rd grade and we were all in the gym. The school had set up T.V.'s for everyone in the gym to watch the launch. They had set up a lot of neat reports from the 5th graders and there was even a guy who was talking about space camp... Then the shuttle picture pre-launch came on the tv's. everyone was watching, launch... a few moments later, the all to familiar explosion and the two side strapped solid rockets peeling away debris falling... they cut the power to the tv's, it was very quiet for awhile. The principle came out and said that something had gone terribly wrong and that we were supposed to go back to our rooms, that he would tell us later on what happened. Later on that day, he came to our room and told us that they; the space su exploded. a very dark day indeed for my childhood.

75. Tim
    January 28th, 2008 at 11:44 pm

    I was standing in my front yard in Melbourne, Florida (Space Coast) watching in disbelief as the Challenger exploded right before my eyes. I was using binoculars at the time. I knew something went wrong. I had seen dozens rocket launches live since the Apollo missions. I grew up wanting to go into space. My neighbor accross the street used to put the Apollo astronuts into their spacesuits before launch. My next door neighbor still works at Kennedy Space Center. I just couldn't beleive it. From my vantage point, it looked like one of the boosters was going the wrong way after separation. I kept waiting for the Orbiter and big fuel tank to come cruising out of that cloud of smoke. But, that didn't happen. I watched a large piece fall out of the sky as long as I could. I beleive it was the crew cabin still intact. It fell for what seemed like forever. I went inside to watch the replay on TV. The mission control announcer was in shock. I couldn't beleive what I had just seen. I kept thinking that this just didn't happen. I got a phone call from a friend in Atlanta, Georiga who used to live in Melbourne, FL. He asked me what the heck happened! I told him what I saw and speculated that the crew cabin of the orbiter was designed to come down in one piece in an emergency. Sadly I was mistaken. It was very hard for all the Space Ccoast residents that day. We all have family and friends that work at KSC or support their mission. My father worked at Harris Corp., Palm Bay, FL and worked on the TDRS satelite the Challenger was carrying that grim day. I pray that they will be remembered as the brave souls they were and we never forget the space travel is still inherently dangerous. But that should not keep us from going back to the Moon and on to Mars. My son has expressed intrest in going into space. Who knows, mabey someday....

76. Kaiti
    January 29th, 2008 at 12:20 am

    I was in 6th grade, and for some reason we were out of school that day, so I was at home, helping my Mom clean the house. My parents and I were heading to Orlando a few days later, as my Dad had some meetings down there and Mom & I were going with him for a quick vacation.

    We'd totally forgotten there was a launch that day until my friend Kirk came running over with the news, "The space shuttle blew up!" "What? No way!" Then we turned on the TV and saw the replay. A few days later, we were in Florida and took a tour of Kennedy Space Center, but of course it was a very abbreviated tour.

    A couple years later I found out that my cousin, a long-time NASA contractor, was working in launch control that day. A very rough day, I imagine.

77. Geekazoid
    January 29th, 2008 at 1:01 am

    I was in history class as a junior, or walking into history class when the teacher broke the news (I believe she had the t.v. running). At that time it was a horrible and tragic thing.

78. Bearded Jon
    January 29th, 2008 at 1:58 am

    It was my Senior year in H.S. and Swing Choir had just started. Somebody came in and told us what happened so we went next door to the ROTC room (yes, ROTC was in Band Hall) because they had a television and much like 9/11 we watched the video over and over and over for an entire class period. It was perhaps more poigniant for our school because one of our science teachers, Mrs. Heinrich, was one of the top 10 finalists for teacher in space. It could easily have been her.

79. Ras
    January 29th, 2008 at 2:47 am

    I was in kindergarten in Rome, GA. I can remember the teacher quickly shutting off the TV and trying to remain calm and have us do something else. We were all wondering what had just happened. I didn't really find out until my mom picked me up from school that day and told me that they were all dead. It was the first time that I can remember understanding what death meant.

80. Dee Sweet-Greenwood
    January 29th, 2008 at 2:51 am

    We had just bought a new television- my two young daughters were home from school (snow day), my husband
    had the day off. We did not have cable, so my husband stood there fiddling with the rabbit ears- the first thing we heard was "Challenger, go for throttle up" from the space center- we got the picture tuned just in time to see the shuttle explode....I remember getting angry when they just kept showing the Y in the sky over and over and over......

81. Pete
    January 29th, 2008 at 2:57 am

    I was part of the team reporting on the launch from the Johnson Space Center for the National Space Institute's "Dial-a-Shuttle" service. I wasn't on mic at the time -- my colleague Patricia Jones (Dasch) was -- and the explosion stunned us both for a good couple of minutes. We were all fans of the space program, volunteering for NSI, and it hit us all hard.

    A seldom-used corridor in the JSC visitor center museum was typically cordoned off for the press room during missions; it was nearly deserted at the time (although the big local stations and networks had their own private trailers), but I remember the European Broadcast Union coordinator, a normally cheerful woman named Barbara Joy, crying. Later in the day NASA staff closed off the rest of the building to the public and began setting up tables and phone lines for the media circus that was to follow.

    A couple of days later, I provided commentary for the Dial-a-Shuttle coverage of the memorial service. I've never listened to my recording of that.

    By the way, it's also 41 years since the Apollo 1 launch pad fire (January 27, 1967) that took the lives of astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee; and Friday February 1 will be 5 years since the Columbia disaster. This is not a happy time of year for the space program.

82. Sky
    January 29th, 2008 at 3:43 am

    5th grade - Our class had been studying space exploration and astronauts in particular for at least a couple of weeks leading up to the launch. We gathered in our classroom along with a couple of other classes to see it on TV. Quite a shock, at first I don't think any of us realized what we were seeing, but it did not take long to sink in. The fact that there was a teacher on board brought it a bit closer to home for most of us, since as students we spent a majority of our time in school. I think most people from my generation can remember the name "Sharon Christa McAuliffe".

83. J.P.
    January 29th, 2008 at 6:55 am

    I saw it first-hand. I was about six yrs/old, visiting my cousins down in FL. I think we were in Orlando, but I can't be sure about that, though I can say that we were close enough to the launch to see it first-hand right after it took off and went into the sky. I remember, after take-off, we went back inside to watch it on my cousin's TV; and that's where we first saw the explosion. Immediately afterwards, we went outside to see for ourselves, and, sure enough, there was a dark cloud of smoke where, presumably, the shuttle exploded. Sad day.

84. Padraig
    January 29th, 2008 at 8:04 am

    I was in 9th grade Geography class. I think the principal (whose office was right across our classroom) ran into the room totally flustered and whispered something into the ear of our teacher who then walked up to and turned on the TV so that we could all watch the "horrible catastrophe that had just taken place in the USA" (his words). We were actually quite shocked, although one or two kids made a snide remark. I think half of the school's males (including me) quit their dream of becoming an astronaut on that day.

85. corey
    January 29th, 2008 at 8:44 am

    second grade, rickety A-V cart, eerily quiet gym.
    the reality of death simultaneously sinking into a room full of primary school students. undeniably one of those "i just grew up a little" moments.

86. Fran
    January 29th, 2008 at 8:59 am

    I was in senior year, last semester marketing class at college. There was this one student who'd been a cut up all semester long, telling outlandish stories and lies to make every one laugh, roll their eyes, groan, etc.

    He came to class that day and told us the Challenger exploded. Needless to say, NO ONE believed him. The instructor showed up, held class, and when we were dismissed, I went back to my apartment and turned on the news. I remember how heart breaking it was to watch. I skipped the rest of my classes that day.

    Talk about the ultimate "Boy who cried wolf" story.

87. Dan
    January 29th, 2008 at 9:41 am

    I was in my Freshman year of college at Ohio State University. Exiting the campus bus on a my way to a math class I asked the bus driver to confirm what I had just heard.

88. Meghan
    January 29th, 2008 at 10:16 am

    I was 5, and in first grade. We all watched on TV when the shuttle went up, and we all saw when the shuttle exploded right before our very eyes. We were all pretty emotionally involved because our teacher had told us there was a teacher on the shuttle. It was sad, and I remember hearing about it for a long time afterward. My mom's a teacher, too, so I guess we took a special interest in Christa McCollough.

89. Tracy
    January 29th, 2008 at 11:40 am

    I was in junior high and my mom was driving me back to school from an orthodontic appointment. We heard the news on a the car radio. When I got back to school I told the teacher, I don't know if she believed me or not but just then the principal made an announcement over the loudspeaker that everyone was to report to the gym for an emergency school assembly. Once everyone gathered, they told us what had happened. I don't remember anyone being overly emotional about the event. It was kind of like, wow oh really? That's too bad. But I remember thinking about it alot. Since there was a school teacher on board, a regular person not an astronaut, for some reason that made it even more real for me. I remember thinking alot about her family and what those last moments must have been like.

90. Delayne
    January 29th, 2008 at 12:57 pm

    Sitting in Latin class in high school (Jay County, Indiana)......they had put it on the video feeds to the classrooms, and all watched in stunned, disbelieving silence. It was expected to be a positive, educational experience for us to watch this......definitely an educational experience of a different kind. Very rare to hear all the classrooms that quiet.

91. JimH
    January 29th, 2008 at 1:44 pm

    I was 33 years old, on a business trip to NYC from Philly, and remember getting on the train late in the PM and opening a newspaper with a special edition, front page photo and all. It was a very cold day, and I remembered all the temperature delays that had put the launch off a couple of times. I remember thinking very clearly, "I knew it was too damn cold to launch that thing..." Little did I know how Feynman would later be able to expose the whole thing.

92. werk
    January 29th, 2008 at 2:24 pm

    I was in 7th Grade, at middleschool, and I was walking down the hallway and a friend pulled me in to an 8th grade social studies teacher's room where some folks, teachers and students alike, were watching it about to lift off on the big TV strapped to the wheeled cart from the A/V center.

    We all did the big count down, like a room of middleschoolers would do, then...wow.

    The teacher said that everyone should go on to their next class.

93. Kirk
    January 29th, 2008 at 4:32 pm

    My business partner, an employee, and I were busy making transparencies and other preparations for some upcoming sales training seminars. We had turned on his giant 6ft. screen TV to watch the launch. Needless to say we were devastated when all of a sudden the Challenger exploded. We just couldn't believe what we had just seen. The rest of the day was spent watching the explosion over and over again. I particularly remember seeing Christa’s parents staring in disbelief at what used to be their daughter’s launch vehicle. They were in such shock that all they could do was hold each other while staring at the explosion. There, up in the sky, on a day that was to be the culmination of their daughter’s dreams, Christa’s parents watched her die. My heart broke for them that day.

94. AJ
    January 29th, 2008 at 5:13 pm

    As it happens, I was onsite at NASA Goddard Spaceflight Center in Greenbelt, MD, that day, working on a project as a Stanford Telecom contractor to NASA. In the lobby of many of the buildings on campus were (and probably still are) closed-circuit televisions on which they show messages or, in this case, the launch feed.

    As the disaster unfolded, the NASA personnel and visitors clustered in the lobby where I was gasped in shock and disbelief and a soft sobbing began. The rest of the day was a daze, and I and the people around me probably only again felt like that on the morning of 11 September 2001.

95. Michael Lonergan
    January 29th, 2008 at 7:45 pm

    On that day, I had the flu, and was asleep on my couch. A friend of mine came over to pick me up, and asked me if I had seen the Space Shuttle explode. I immediately turned the TV on and saw them replaying it over and over. I try to follow every Shuttle Mission, and always breathe a sigh of relief when they pass that 72 second mark. In 2003, I was walking into a bowling alley with my daughters in Edmonton, AB. when we saw Columbia break up. It brought back a flood of memories watching in shock another tragedy unfolding. I don't think Space Flight will ever be risk free, and I'm sure many more lives will be lost as mankind reaches for the stars. My hat goes off to the brave men and women that dedicate their lives to exploring the "Last Frontier."

96. Nicholas Dollak
    January 29th, 2008 at 7:56 pm

    Where was I? Although New Jersey is in the same time zone as Florida, the news was pretty much suppressed at my high school. I was in 12th grade, and so was an exchange student staying with us. One of my brothers was in 10th grade. They took the bus home; I rode my bike because of my allergies (kids would smoke on the bus, and the 'tards thought my allergy was funny). When I got home, the other two told me they just heard on the bus radio that the shuttle blew up. Having just spent another miserable day in high school hearing this kind of crap from jerks with no lives, I naturally assumed they were just trying to get a reaction from me, and I snorted and said, "Yeah, right." But this was my brother and Giammarco, who knew me as a person... and they reiterated what they'd just told me. "Really?" I said. "Really." I think I asked how it happened, and they said they didn't know; the kids on the bus were making too much noise. We turned on the TV and we all watched.

    Although I never pursued an astronaut career, I thought space travel was cool then, and I think it's cool now. I'd go up if I had the chance, just as I would have before Challenger.

    So I missed seeing the event in "real time." Oddly enough, I DID manage to catch (on TV) Mike Tyson biting off Evander Holyfield's ear, and the 9-11 attacks on the WTC as they happened. I'm not a sports fan, nor do I watch daytime TV; in the first instance a friend dragged me to another friend's apartment to watch the big fight; in the second instance, I had an off-day from work and turned on the TV in order to copy a video --- and there was the WTC with smoke pouring from one tower. By the end of the day, I'd donated blood and convinced my then-fiancee (who was too scared to donate) to do likewise. We were both very proud of her, and she has donated regularly since.

97. irvscott
    January 29th, 2008 at 10:16 pm

    I was a senior at Kaukauna High School, in Kaukauna, Wisconsin at the time. I remember walking down the hall in between classes when somebody I knew came up to me and said: "What's black and white and blew all over?...the space shuttle!" Of course I didn't know just how unfunny his little joke was until I got to my next class where they had the TV on, playing those horrible scenes of the day.

98. Alex
    January 30th, 2008 at 2:11 am

    I was in middle school and was home at the time. I distinctly remember hoping that the astronauts have a super shielded cockpit that would allow them to drift back to earth safely. Oh, what a silly boy I was.

    //It's great to read all of Neatorama readers' recollections of the event sad as it was. Great post, Miss C!

99. Meg
    January 30th, 2008 at 10:18 am

    I was in the 9th grade. I remember going into my Physical Science class and someone told the class what happened and that they saw it on the TV in the library. I think we all went to the library and watched the news coverage of it. It just seemed so unbelieveable...

100. BP Melvin
     January 30th, 2008 at 7:37 pm

     All of you in school make me feel old.I was a USAF aviator at the time flying a C-141 out of MAFB NJ

     I was in the air on a local training sortie on the east coast at the time. Command post recalled us: had us immediately land.

     I rushed home grabbed a bag, and back to an airplane diverting to provide transport for recovery/rescue/investigation I had no details at the time and never did see a news broadcast till later in the week.

     I had looked into the requirements of being a shuttle crew member a while before that. It hit home.

     But for the grace of God...

101. DragonBrew
     January 31st, 2008 at 5:59 am

     I was in Mrs. T's eighth grade social studies class. We were watching the lauch on the classroom television.

     First time we knew anything was wrong is when she said, to herself, "that wasn't supposed to happen."

     You all know the rest.

102. Stevie McMichael
     February 14th, 2008 at 2:38 pm

     I was four at the time, watching it with my mother--I was young enough that I didn't understand what had happened right away, but I was scared because it was the first time I'd ever seen my mother cry. When what had really happened finally sank into my four-year-old brain, I cried, too.

103. I remember Challenger
     March 10th, 2008 at 2:13 am

     I was in Grade 12 and was asleep after writing a hefty mid-term English exam. I remember trying to get my mind around the events, thinking I was making some mistake. I kept hearing repeats of Scobee saying "GO at throttle-up", then that muted, terrible electronic sound of the ship disintegrating, and the launch announcer saying, "obviously a major malfunction."

     A lot of thoughts came after. I'd been fascinated by the first few televised launches of 'Columbia' in '81 and 'Challenger' in '83. I even convinced my Grade 7 science teacher to let my class watch a launch in '82. He was impressed I suggested it. It was funny how the girl students were sardonic at first about a Shuttle launch, and then were thrilled when it lifted off ... wow, so space is like adventure, and not weird nerd stuff? Wow!

     So I think with 'Challenger' my first reaction was, "oh no, the PROGRAM." I knew the astronauts knew the risks, accepted them, and loved their jobs. I felt bad for their families, but I also was sad knowing that the space program, all that wonderful stuff in the works, was on hold. Perhaps forever.

     When NASA got back on track in '88, everyone was more cynical about the Shuttle and space flight. Things got better, but NASA stopped taking ANY risk, not just unacceptable ones. (I hear today's astronauts complain about that.) Now that the Shuttle fleet will be retired in 2010 because of the Columbia accident, I sometimes wonder if the stay-at-home mentality will finally take over.

     We're too intelligent to stay on this planet forever. Here's to all the challengers out there ...

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