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 …

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

You all know the rest.

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…

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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)

“What happened? Did the SPACE SHUTTLE blow up or somethin’?!”

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.

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.

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

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.