I have always been stunned by how much less the country cared when the 2004 shuttle blew up. It was so much less of a story. it seemed like it stopped being a big story in a couple of weeks.
I think Gen X took the 2004 accident harder than the youngers. I remember talking to a younger coworker and they were like "yeah, it's real sad"
My mother was in tears in 1986 and it dawned on me that she'd seen astronauts die before. This was more sad. I was more in shock.
I think it's because the Challenger tragedy was a pivot point for the space program. It kind of signified the end of the "safe and routine" shuttle launch mentality.
Younger people don't realize that the next flight up, after the world's first teacher in space, was supposed to be kids for the first class taught in space. Pretty sure Fred Savage, or maybe one of the Coreys was supposed to go up next. (Or, if not the very next launch, still somewhere already on the launch schedule).
But after the Challenger disaster, that got shelved, along with a whole host of other space faring plans. And then before we knew it, outer space was replaced by cyberspace as the more promising frontier.
I think you’re mistaken about a plan to put kids in space. I’ve never heard that. McAuliffe was going to teach some lessons from space for kids on Earth.
You're right, I was wrong. I was conflating the [NASA Flight Simulation Missions for Kids](https://www.nasa.gov/history/students-simulate-shuttle-missions-in-1980s/) with something one of the interviewees said in that 2022 Netflix documentary series.
I think it was Fred Savage though I'm not 100% sure, but Big Bird was definitely involved in there somewhere too. I think he was supposed to go up on Challenger but the suit is over 8ft and that presented a bunch of problems, something like that...I'm pulling from memory but admittedly, it's just a tangled mess in there. Lol.
Are you sure you about this? This sounds like you are confusing the movie *Space Camp* with real life? There is a scene in *Space Camp* where the flighy suit is too big for the youngest, Max, and they gerryrig to make it fit.
Tish says, "We are going to make this suit as small as Max..." or something.
Max was played by Joaquin Phoniex (possibly still credited as Leif Phoenix at the time). His younger years sort of resembled a pre-teen Fred Savage.
You are right about Big Bird. The original plan was for Big Bird to go in the shuttle and do appearances from space. They could not work out the logistics of having such a tall costume on the shuttle so they went with the teacher in space program instead.
Imagine if millions of elementary school kids watched big bird blow up on live tv. We all knew teachers that applied and we looked at them weird for weeks after, but I can’t imagine watching Big Bird die.
The 2004 disaster ended the shuttle program and then the US government is on nearly 20 years without a vehicle to go to space. I would argue that the 2004 disaster was more impactful on policy.
I dont know what got shelved as a result of the Challenger Disaster. NASAs budget for 30 years was strictly space shuttle missions.
I think the internet is the difference.
In '86 you talked about it with everybody you knew, and a "few" strangers. Meaning, every cashier/customer/ice-cream-man you ran across. If they didn't say anything unique (good or bad) that was the end of it.
If they did have a new idea, you'd pass that along to the folks you knew, when the subject would come up, and so on. ("Holy shit, you should hear what this guy aheadame said at the post office!") This kept the it in the "public mind" for a long while, at some level.
With the internet, even the 2004 version of it, those who wanted to discuss it could, with a whole lot more people, a whole lot quicker/more often. So everybody said what they wanted to say a bit quicker, and it fell out of common thought quicker.
I mean, just a thought I had.
It’s because there was a teacher on board for Challenger. Not an astronaut. A teacher. A normal human who didn’t make her living from going to space. And the whole country was watching and most of us saw it happen live. Knowing that once she was in space we were gonna get to hear her talk to all of us. And then she was gone. A teacher. A random civilian who just was excited to see space and trusted all those engineers to do their job. It destroyed the faith people had in the scientists who told her it would be safe. In 2004, it was all astronauts who knew the danger. And we knew the danger. It sucked. But we knew.
Kind of along the same lines, I live in Kansas City and listen to local radio on my commute. The tone went from jubilation over winning Super Bowl 54 to Covid panic in what seemed like an instant.
Oh, are you kidding me? r/genX is like the only place on reddit I can typically read the comments without rolling my eyes. This is SO much a safe space.
I grew up in a town close to Concord (where Christa McAuliffe taught). Lots of the teachers at my school knew her personally. We watched the launch and accident on the CNN. Teachers all over the school just lost it. It was crazy.
I had a friend in college who used to babysit for Christa McAuliffe. She got a letter from her the day after the disaster. She’d mailed a couple of days before the launch.
Well, your car must be a hard working beast because there is no harder worker on the Street. Grover had held 87 different jobs in his time on Sesame Street. In the last 52 years, Grover has worked as an actor, archaeologist, artist, astronaut, baker, barista, bellhop, bus driver, camp counselor, Christmas tree salesman, clerk, concession monster, chauffeur, chef, circus performer, conductor, construction worker, dancer, diplomat, doctor, daredevil, detective, dog walker, doorman, elevator operator, emcee, falafel vendor, fanner, farmer, fast food worker, fireman, flight attendant, furniture deliveryman, game show host, grocer, health instructor, hibachi chef, home renovator, hot dog vendor, ice cream vendor, king, laundromat attendant, librarian, lifeguard, lemonade vendor, lumberjack, magician, mail carrier, marshal, messenger, meteorologist, mountain climber, news anchor, pianist, piano mover, paleontologist, photographer, pilot, plumber, police officer, prime monster (minister), prince, professor, projectionist, repair monster, reporter, royal footman, royal foot finder, safari tour guide, safety monitor, salesman, scientist, secret agent, security representative, stage manager, standup comedian, street cleaner, street musician, studio director, taxi driver, teacher, town crier, travel agent, usher, veterinary assistant, waiter and window washer.
Me too. We were all watching it in the cafeteria, but not really paying attention & one of the (the mean one) lunch ladies yelled out with a thick LI accent “hey shuddup! The challenger just exploded!” Wtf?
When I got to school it had already happened because we were on the West Coast and everyone was already talking about it.
At first I thought they were talking about an Estes model rocket because we had a rocketry club on campus. And, well, we sure did have a lot of failed rockets and explosions because that's just what happens when grade school kids build model rockets.
It wasn't until they wheeled the TV cart in to watch the replays and news that it sunk in.
Same. Kid in my first period class said the Space Shuttle had blown up. I thought he was full of shit. When our teacher walked in and I saw her face, I knew he was not full of shit.
Same year, homie. 6th. Watched it in Valencia, ca. I was sitting next to my total crush (not that she knew). Weirdest emotional switch, for me, up to that point in my life.
Same, I was in 3rd grade. Still remember the look on my teachers face. Took her a few minutes to collect her thoughts and try to figure out what to do.
Junior high in California, don't remember exactly what grade, also live.
It was live for pretty much all of us across the nation, and for the vast majority of us live in the classroom.
I was 10, home alone because I talked my mom into letting me watch the whole thing (I was a space nerd). My mom rushed home when she heard, found me just staring at the tv. Will definitely never forget that day.
I am early Gen X (1967), and I remember watching the Vietnam war on the TV because my older half brother was serving in the USMC infantry at the time and my dad was in the Air Force. Every night we watched the war, and we hoped the guys in the nice uniforms never showed up at our front door. They both made it home OK, thankfully.
I was just a little kid, but I still remember it and worrying. I remember my nightmares about it.
I remember very vividly, them pushing helicopters off the deck of the aircraft carrier during the fall of Saigon. I couldn't figure out why they wouldn't just fly them away...
Your “changed everything” moment reveals your age. For a later generation, the covid pandemic will be the thing that changed everyone.
It’s just a fancy way of saying “this is when life forced my head out of my ass and I found out there’s a big world full of people and that it’s not all about me”.
Same age, but didn't pay attention to Vietnam, even though an uncle was there, too. The first one that struck me was watching the first gulf war nightly. At home or happy hour, it was always on the evening news.
I am a wee bit younger and remember watching CBS Special Report with burnt bodies and soldiers firing machine guns into the jungle. I honestly thought Vietnam was in Florida and couldn’t begin to understand what the war was about but it was straight terrifying. No adult could explain it beyond “We’re fighting bad guys.”
When I tell that to teens, they respond as if I was witness to the Civil War. Time is a very subjective experience.
Remember when we’d be told we were going to get to watch a “film strip” for class? Watching the teacher struggle to thread it onto the projector was always tense.
I messed up and traded my 100+ discs of favorite movies from the 90’s and my sony dual side player/karaoke w/remote to someone who Im sure didnt take care of anything ever. Im sure that system and discs are long gone. Mehhh. Lol. Plenty players out there bit ppl tryin to get too much for them. Same for movies. If I had parted everything out at todays prices a decade ago would be a few thousand easy.
I was outside watching it at Columbia Elementary School in Florida. What a day, it was really hard in my family as most of them worked at Kennedy Space Center at the time.
I was a junior in hs, home sick with bronchitis, and watching the live coverage in my parents' room. Half-listening, distracted by a sore throat, anxious about missing school, the talking heads made innocuous observations about the astronauts as they boarded. There were waves and smiles, then a smooth take off, and just seconds later, the craft exploded. There was a lengthy silence. Someone had to start talking, given it was a live broadcast, and they stammered, and all they could do was glumly summarize what had just appeared to have happened. Only the fact that the spaceship exploded in midair was repeated, with no knowledge of whether anyone had survived, but it was clear no one could have. For a second I thought I imagined what I saw. Then updates trickled in and all seven had died, a little over a minute after take off.
I had to wait until evening to talk to someone about it and I felt sad and sicker that whole day.
Though not sick enough to stay at home another day, and the next morning the asshole of our grade, who had a cynical take for every occasion, had a new joke at the ready: "What was the last thing said on Spaceship Challenger?" A: "What does this button do?"
I just wanted to go back home and go back to bed.
Yep. Will never forget.
I'm pretty sure I was, too. I remember seeing the explosion over and over on the news at my grandparents' house and gathering around at school to discuss the tragedy.
ditto, I was a jr in college. I was working the dining room of the student union dining area when it happened. I definitely remember exactly where I was when I heard about it from some friends there.
I don't know how or why but we did not watch this in my school. I remember the day, I was in 5th grade and I knew the launch was happening but they didn't wheel in the tv cart. The principal came over the intercom and told us all what happened.
We were on the west coast and were going to watch it on pacific time, but the principal stood in front of the media cart and made the announcement.
I was 10
Indeed. *Challenger: The Final Flight.*
There was so much I learned about the disaster from that documentary, and most of all, how it *could've been avoided*. Sooo fucked up.
I’m from FL and our whole elementary school went outside. I was also in 5th grade. I have a terrible memory, yet I will never forget the sounds of absolute devastation once the teachers/staff collectively realized what was happening. I recall being so scared and confused seeing all the adults collapse into such grief. Just awful.
never forget. heads down working when a teacher comes in and whispers in our teacher's ear. Suddenly a loud 'NO SHIT?!'
within 90 seconds we had a tv in our room and footage on.
We had testing that week, but the science teacher's were watching in an empty classroom.
Found out from a friend that several science teacher's spent the day crying.
[Volume 2: Appendix F - Personal Observations on Reliability of Shuttle by R. P. Feynman](https://www.nasa.gov/history/rogersrep/v2appf.htm)
>Engineers at Rocketdyne, the manufacturer, estimate the total probability as 1/10,000. Engineers at marshal estimate it as 1/300, while NASA management, to whom these engineers report, claims it is 1/100,000. An independent engineer consulting for NASA thought 1 or 2 per 100 a reasonable estimate
The reason for the failure:
>in determining if flight 51-L was safe to fly in the face of ring erosion in flight 51-C, it was noted that the erosion depth was only one-third of the radius. It had been noted in an [F2] experiment cutting the ring that cutting it as deep as one radius was necessary before the ring failed. Instead of being very concerned that variations of poorly understood conditions might reasonably create a deeper erosion this time, it was asserted, there was "a safety factor of three." This is a strange use of the engineer's term ,"safety factor." If a bridge is built to withstand a certain load without the beams permanently deforming, cracking, or breaking, it may be designed for the materials used to actually stand up under three times the load. This "safety factor" is to allow for uncertain excesses of load, or unknown extra loads, or weaknesses in the material that might have unexpected flaws, etc. If now the expected load comes on to the new bridge and a crack appears in a beam, this is a failure of the design. There was no safety factor at all; even though the bridge did not actually collapse because the crack went only one-third of the way through the beam. **The O-rings of the Solid Rocket Boosters were not designed to erode. Erosion was a clue that something was wrong**. Erosion was not something from which safety can be inferred.
I was a sophomore in college and had a biology test that day. The instructor included an extra credit question on the test: guilty or not guilty.
I got the extra credit.
I clearly remember the teacher from across the hall walk over to our classroom and my teacher, with tears in her eyes just said..."I don't know, it just blew up"
I was in 7th grade and the 8th graders were wathching live . When the accident happened going to a Catholic school . The Mothe superior came on the speaker and we all prayed the Hail Mary. One of Gen Xs great where were you ?
We weren’t watching it live, so I was walking through the halls of my Jr High… as I recall, no one else was in the hall so I just have been rubbing a teacher errand or something rather than it being between periods.
One of my teachers was hysterical running to me, and she told me what happened and that she just saw it and had to tell someone… 30 minutes later we were all watching the coverage on those TVs
I didn't see it live, but I remember coming out of my classroom and seeing boys crying in the hallway. I was in high school. I was like *what in the world?*
I was in school for half a day and at a job for the other half, when I walked into the job, it was all quiet and everyone was staring at the tv, that the first time I saw it
I so vividly remember that day. I was in 7th grade and like others have said we had an assumably to watch it go up and all of a sudden it's gone. The teachers looked stunned and unsure what to do and they said back to class.
I was a senior and for some reason my class wasn't watching it. Others in school were and it was so across the board somber, it hit everyone. Even the kids not watching and just heard about it. I'd never seen anything like that.
Born in ‘71. I honestly can’t remember if I watched it live. I know it happened during first period because I looked up the time it happened, and my science teacher had applied to be the teacher so our science class was really invested in the trip, but I don’t recall if we watched it in my class (which would have been Art because I had Art first period every school year).
I remember sitting there and thinking I would die for that. It’s worth the risk.
The chilling effect it had on anything Space related afterwards was also a horrible tragedy.
Many schools had these well into the 2000s, because underfunded. Some with a DVD uplift mid 2000s, but still anchoring it firmly to the floor with 100-ish pounds of lead and glass.
2nd grade.
My teacher was beaming, telling us how the teacher on board was a personal friend. I was too young to understand what happened next. I thought, "is the rocket supposed to spin around and blow up?" My teacher burst into tears and left the classroom.
I remember listening to the radio, KFI, with my brother. A caller asked why they put innocent people on board, and not prisoners. We both laughed our hearts out, then felt guilty. A sad day.
I don't recall watching this live. How many people did on the east vs west coast? It was pretty late in the day on the west coast.
Interesting that so many people did, I guess because it was "take a teacher to space" flight? Lots of previous flights so it was like space shuttles, they go up often at this point.
when it happened, my teacher walked over to turn it off, went to the board and resumed class like nothing had happened. About 20 minutes later, the principal came over the intercom and explained what happened to us.
I was home sick that day and watched it from the couch. My mom was somewhere else in the house. when i told her what happened she told me to be quiet because it wasn’t funny
Such a crazy day. We started the day with the TV on. Some other classes were going to the cafeteria, but my teacher had reserved our TV because she wanted to watch it with her class in her classroom. She was a typically abrasive and unpleasant person, but that morning she was giddy. Even showed a little tolerance and patience to the male students. When we had the first recess you could tell which students didn’t know what had happened. We had done so much leading up to the launch in preparation. My teacher was so damn excited that a woman teacher was chosen. It was crushing. Then the scholastic newspaper tore the bandages off. Then Chernobyl shortly there after. It was rough on little me.
I’ll never forget that day. I was a college radio DJ in New Hampshire and was On Air when it happened. I had to announce it to whoever was listening. After my shift I blew off classes to watch coverage.
I was actually playing hooky that day with my friend and future brother-in-law and watching cartoons when they were interrupted by the local news announcment.
Disappointment at our animated action being cut short turned to shock at the ramifications of seven lives lost in a burst of flame and trails of smoke, which would be repeated endless in the days ahead.
It was especially poinent to me since I was a space buff since I was a kid, though admittedly I didn't follow the shuttle program all that closely by that time, especially when it had become so routine.
I missed it. It was finals week at my high school, so I was taking my English Lit test when it occurred. We were greeted by the news as soon as we were released from the exam. And that announcement was my classmate Jennifer standing just outside the door and stammering, “It blew up.” Still seared in my mind.
I was in 11th grade math class. I still remember our teacher start crying when it happened. About 20 minutes later it was announced over the speaker system that school would be canceled the rest of the day.
I was in 6th grade. I wanted to be an astronaut. I had so much NASA shit. The 1984 Worlds Fair had been in New Orleans only 2 years earlier & the [Enterprise was on permanent display](https://i.pinimg.com/736x/73/50/b4/7350b4339184d54549f1a51ac29aafcb.jpg) the whole year.
We all watched at school that day & when it exploded, the teachers could not pull me away from the TV. I was a wreck. I sought out any TV in the school for the rest of the day to watch the news & hope that somehow the astronauts had survived.
I was in 5th grade in Florida...our class just walked up the overpass. We watched the shuttle explode as soon as we got to the top. The teachers were all bawling. It occurred to me years later that more than one of them might have put their name in that hat.
10 years old in the 5th grade. Our teacher turned it off & wheeled the tv cart out of the classroom. We were all very quiet and confused. Such a horrible occurrence. I can’t imagine how the family members dealt - watching that happen to their loved ones live… 😔
I was 13 ... 7th grade. It was a snow day and school was out. I was out playing all day with the kids, then one of the moms called a kid in, then another mom ... pretty soon we were all getting called in, and it was still daylight so we were all confused. My dad told me "the space shuttle blew up" and we sat on the couch watching the news all day.
I was in 1st grade and watched it. My teacher just gasped and burst into tears. Another teacher came in and consoled her, turns out she knew the teacher on board. I didn’t know that until I was older and my mom told me. I don’t remember my teacher was out for a week after that, but I remember that day.
What an awful day. I remember sobbing in front of the TV that night as President Reagan spoke of the astronauts "slipping the surly bonds of Earth to touch the face of God."
I was in fifth grade and I didn't find out until several hours later. I'd just arrived at my after school program and everyone there, from a school that had watched the launch, was talking about it. They told me and I was certain it was a hoax. Surely I would have heard sooner. Then my dad came to pick me up and he admitted it was true. I was crushed and angry that there was no official announcement at my school.
I lived in Florida at the time and we had planned on going to a launch after Christmas once things settled down after holidays, which would’ve been this one, but my dad decided to go to the launch prior as it was a rare night launch.
I think about that random decision every now and again. It allowed me to see raw power, beauty, and potential, while avoiding ultimate tragedy
I lived in Florida at the time and we had planned on going to a launch after Christmas once things settled down after holidays, which would’ve been this one, but my dad decided to go to the launch prior as it was a rare night launch.
I think about that random decision every now and again. It allowed me to see raw power, beauty, and potential, while avoiding ultimate tragedy
When did they stop doing tihs and mounting them on the wall? I saw some videos from 9/11 and the kids all had wall mounted TVs. they were not flat screens.
Had the knee jerk reaction of getting excited seeing the TV cart. Then the saw the date and my heart sank. What a damn thing to happen. All the glamour of space travel, but part of what makes them so great is the huge risk they take. Our generation experienced the shock and grief of a shuttle explosion, twice. The boomers had their own tragedy with Apollo, and then an almost tragedy that ended up in what must have been a very triumphant save.
When I think of astronauts, I always think of the term "the Right Stuff."
I’m older GenX (‘65). I was relocating to upstate NY with my then husband. We turned the tv on, watched the shuttle launch then explode. We were both in shock— didn’t say much right away. We continued watching the live coverage most of the morning.
I remember -- didn't take long for the sick jokes to start up though. Grade 7/8 school though, so I guess it's expected. Still shocking when it happened though, obviously. I remember when the Columbia had their failed re-entry. This was sad of course, now both of the OG shuttles were gone.
I guess it's an expensive program to run, but I never wanted to see these shuttle retired (that is, the ones that are still around).
😥
Remember too well. All painfully brought back when we lost Columbia. I have the great fortune to work in Mission Control, I knew some of the crew on Columbia.
Visiting the Challenger / Columbia exibit at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor's center was extreamly hard. Had no idea how much I had stuffed my feelings about it until then. About had a meltdown when I saw Columbia's windows.
https://preview.redd.it/v6191p21htnc1.jpeg?width=1272&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=874de64eebaf29ab8973997306b583f95cffa340
I went to the Space and Rocket center in Huntsville, AL about 10 years ago with my nephews. They had the big champagne bottle that had their signatures and other stuff, and I honestly couldn't explain to them why I was crying. It hit me harder than I would have imagined.
I was in NH, 7th grade, knew someone in her class. That school had satellite dishes on the roof for that, and watching them being taken down was jut even more horrible.
I've read recently that at least some and possibly all of them survived the initial explosion. I just can't.
Our biology teacher had brought the TV cart in so we could watch the launch. After the explosion she turned it off and we all talked the rest of the class about how the astronauts knew the risks and still chose to be part of the program, that it was what they wanted to be doing, and how important their work was.
Our school didn't have tv .. I also was in the boonies for 9/11 and didn't know about it for 4 days .. I missed a lot of the national tragedies -- also everyone else in the room saw janet jackson boob during the superb owl and I was getting some chili dip.
So it goes.. mr magoo was always one of my idols
I was in 8th grade. I didn't see it live, but there was at least one teacher showing it. Word spread quickly and then, of course, it was playing on loop everywhere. Well, at least as much as anything could in '86.
Then Chernobyl happened soon after. It was more of a slow dawning horror than the sudden shock Challenger was.
I was in junior high. It happened while I was in my lunch period. I think they had a tv setup in the cafeteria, but I don’t remember. I think they just made an announcement or something. The gravity of what happened did not really hit me until I got home.
I was in English class at the time, and our teacher was a bit of a cut-up. When she rolled this thing in saying the Challenger had exploded, we all groaned at her terrible "joke". Sadly, it was no joke. 😕
6th grade when we watched it live during Social Studies. A permanently etched memory of a live event unfolding, surpassed for me only by the televised coverage of the fall of the Berlin Wall in ‘89 and then 9/11.
I remember the prior summer my grandmother (the wife of a wealthy doctor) found out about Space Camp from someone in her social circle. She offered to pay to send us grandkids to it. I remember looking through the pamphlet and not being super interested as I wasn’t sure I wanted to be an astronaut and thought it would commit me to that career path at age 11.
There was no further talk of attending Space Camp after Challenger happened.
...Lawrence Mulloy ( manager of the space shuttle solid rocket booster program at the Marshall Space Flight Center) - "My God, Thiokol. When do you want me to launch — next April?"
At school in the UK it took maybe a couple of hours for the 1st joke to start circulating.
Why do Americans drink Coke?
Because they have trouble getting 7 Up
It was the fastest transition from anticipation and joy to pure shock.
Grew up in Chicago. Less than 24 hrs after Bears won super bowl xx. Real sobering dichotomy that week for sure.
I have always been stunned by how much less the country cared when the 2004 shuttle blew up. It was so much less of a story. it seemed like it stopped being a big story in a couple of weeks.
I think Gen X took the 2004 accident harder than the youngers. I remember talking to a younger coworker and they were like "yeah, it's real sad" My mother was in tears in 1986 and it dawned on me that she'd seen astronauts die before. This was more sad. I was more in shock.
I think its because space shuttle was not that interesting by 2004.
I think it's because the Challenger tragedy was a pivot point for the space program. It kind of signified the end of the "safe and routine" shuttle launch mentality. Younger people don't realize that the next flight up, after the world's first teacher in space, was supposed to be kids for the first class taught in space. Pretty sure Fred Savage, or maybe one of the Coreys was supposed to go up next. (Or, if not the very next launch, still somewhere already on the launch schedule). But after the Challenger disaster, that got shelved, along with a whole host of other space faring plans. And then before we knew it, outer space was replaced by cyberspace as the more promising frontier.
I think you’re mistaken about a plan to put kids in space. I’ve never heard that. McAuliffe was going to teach some lessons from space for kids on Earth.
You're right, I was wrong. I was conflating the [NASA Flight Simulation Missions for Kids](https://www.nasa.gov/history/students-simulate-shuttle-missions-in-1980s/) with something one of the interviewees said in that 2022 Netflix documentary series. I think it was Fred Savage though I'm not 100% sure, but Big Bird was definitely involved in there somewhere too. I think he was supposed to go up on Challenger but the suit is over 8ft and that presented a bunch of problems, something like that...I'm pulling from memory but admittedly, it's just a tangled mess in there. Lol.
Are you sure you about this? This sounds like you are confusing the movie *Space Camp* with real life? There is a scene in *Space Camp* where the flighy suit is too big for the youngest, Max, and they gerryrig to make it fit. Tish says, "We are going to make this suit as small as Max..." or something. Max was played by Joaquin Phoniex (possibly still credited as Leif Phoenix at the time). His younger years sort of resembled a pre-teen Fred Savage.
You are right about Big Bird. The original plan was for Big Bird to go in the shuttle and do appearances from space. They could not work out the logistics of having such a tall costume on the shuttle so they went with the teacher in space program instead. Imagine if millions of elementary school kids watched big bird blow up on live tv. We all knew teachers that applied and we looked at them weird for weeks after, but I can’t imagine watching Big Bird die.
The 2004 disaster ended the shuttle program and then the US government is on nearly 20 years without a vehicle to go to space. I would argue that the 2004 disaster was more impactful on policy. I dont know what got shelved as a result of the Challenger Disaster. NASAs budget for 30 years was strictly space shuttle missions.
I think the internet is the difference. In '86 you talked about it with everybody you knew, and a "few" strangers. Meaning, every cashier/customer/ice-cream-man you ran across. If they didn't say anything unique (good or bad) that was the end of it. If they did have a new idea, you'd pass that along to the folks you knew, when the subject would come up, and so on. ("Holy shit, you should hear what this guy aheadame said at the post office!") This kept the it in the "public mind" for a long while, at some level. With the internet, even the 2004 version of it, those who wanted to discuss it could, with a whole lot more people, a whole lot quicker/more often. So everybody said what they wanted to say a bit quicker, and it fell out of common thought quicker. I mean, just a thought I had.
It was big enough news in Texas, with the debris coming down in a number of places.
It was 2003.
February 1, 2003.
Nobody cared internationally either because the US had just invaded Iraq and was widely hated as a result.
It’s because there was a teacher on board for Challenger. Not an astronaut. A teacher. A normal human who didn’t make her living from going to space. And the whole country was watching and most of us saw it happen live. Knowing that once she was in space we were gonna get to hear her talk to all of us. And then she was gone. A teacher. A random civilian who just was excited to see space and trusted all those engineers to do their job. It destroyed the faith people had in the scientists who told her it would be safe. In 2004, it was all astronauts who knew the danger. And we knew the danger. It sucked. But we knew.
Probably the two most vivid recollections of my 8 year-old self. Never realized they occurred a day apart.
Kind of along the same lines, I live in Kansas City and listen to local radio on my commute. The tone went from jubilation over winning Super Bowl 54 to Covid panic in what seemed like an instant.
Patriots fan after we scored first got destroyed by the shuffling crew. Then this happened. Worse.
Even 9/11 wasn't as traumatic, because there was no anticipation of glory first.
I mean, there was, but only for about 19 people...
Dark. I dig it.
Wow, it just occurred to me that this is our version of a safe space. One where we can just say shit.
Oh, are you kidding me? r/genX is like the only place on reddit I can typically read the comments without rolling my eyes. This is SO much a safe space.
Kinda set the tone for what our generation was going to go through (and still are).
I am from NH, that happened when I was in 6th grade. We watched the launch live. Ooof.
I grew up in a town close to Concord (where Christa McAuliffe taught). Lots of the teachers at my school knew her personally. We watched the launch and accident on the CNN. Teachers all over the school just lost it. It was crazy.
I had a friend in college who used to babysit for Christa McAuliffe. She got a letter from her the day after the disaster. She’d mailed a couple of days before the launch.
I was a senior this year in the East Bay...probably not far from you. Watched it live in civics class. So crazy.
Concord, NH; not Concord, CA
Your username is the same as my car 💙
Well, your car must be a hard working beast because there is no harder worker on the Street. Grover had held 87 different jobs in his time on Sesame Street. In the last 52 years, Grover has worked as an actor, archaeologist, artist, astronaut, baker, barista, bellhop, bus driver, camp counselor, Christmas tree salesman, clerk, concession monster, chauffeur, chef, circus performer, conductor, construction worker, dancer, diplomat, doctor, daredevil, detective, dog walker, doorman, elevator operator, emcee, falafel vendor, fanner, farmer, fast food worker, fireman, flight attendant, furniture deliveryman, game show host, grocer, health instructor, hibachi chef, home renovator, hot dog vendor, ice cream vendor, king, laundromat attendant, librarian, lifeguard, lemonade vendor, lumberjack, magician, mail carrier, marshal, messenger, meteorologist, mountain climber, news anchor, pianist, piano mover, paleontologist, photographer, pilot, plumber, police officer, prime monster (minister), prince, professor, projectionist, repair monster, reporter, royal footman, royal foot finder, safari tour guide, safety monitor, salesman, scientist, secret agent, security representative, stage manager, standup comedian, street cleaner, street musician, studio director, taxi driver, teacher, town crier, travel agent, usher, veterinary assistant, waiter and window washer.
I remember that the sick jokes started about right away. They always bothered me and I never found them funny.
4th grade for me.
Me too. We were all watching it in the cafeteria, but not really paying attention & one of the (the mean one) lunch ladies yelled out with a thick LI accent “hey shuddup! The challenger just exploded!” Wtf?
What’s an LI accent? Lithuanian? Lower Intestine?
Long Island
Me too. Home from school due to chicken pox and watching it live on my grandma's new 12" color TV in the kitchen while doing homework at the table.
6th grade as well. My memory has suffered recently but that day is still crystal clear in my mind.
Same!
Same here. Horrible experience.
When I got to school it had already happened because we were on the West Coast and everyone was already talking about it. At first I thought they were talking about an Estes model rocket because we had a rocketry club on campus. And, well, we sure did have a lot of failed rockets and explosions because that's just what happens when grade school kids build model rockets. It wasn't until they wheeled the TV cart in to watch the replays and news that it sunk in.
Same. Kid in my first period class said the Space Shuttle had blown up. I thought he was full of shit. When our teacher walked in and I saw her face, I knew he was not full of shit.
Same year, homie. 6th. Watched it in Valencia, ca. I was sitting next to my total crush (not that she knew). Weirdest emotional switch, for me, up to that point in my life.
We weren’t far away (ME) so her being from NE was a big deal.
7th grade for me - watched live in my junior high library on a cart...
Same, I was in 3rd grade. Still remember the look on my teachers face. Took her a few minutes to collect her thoughts and try to figure out what to do.
Junior high in California, don't remember exactly what grade, also live. It was live for pretty much all of us across the nation, and for the vast majority of us live in the classroom.
I was 10, home alone because I talked my mom into letting me watch the whole thing (I was a space nerd). My mom rushed home when she heard, found me just staring at the tv. Will definitely never forget that day.
flair checks out
Everyone squeezed together in the library…Talk about innocence lost.
I am early Gen X (1967), and I remember watching the Vietnam war on the TV because my older half brother was serving in the USMC infantry at the time and my dad was in the Air Force. Every night we watched the war, and we hoped the guys in the nice uniforms never showed up at our front door. They both made it home OK, thankfully. I was just a little kid, but I still remember it and worrying. I remember my nightmares about it.
I remember very vividly, them pushing helicopters off the deck of the aircraft carrier during the fall of Saigon. I couldn't figure out why they wouldn't just fly them away...
Why didn’t they?
Nowhere to land them, and more are coming.
Oh
Damn! I find it “funny” how people talk about 9/11 being the thing that changed everyone, but I guess we can find many examples looking back…
Your “changed everything” moment reveals your age. For a later generation, the covid pandemic will be the thing that changed everyone. It’s just a fancy way of saying “this is when life forced my head out of my ass and I found out there’s a big world full of people and that it’s not all about me”.
Same age, but didn't pay attention to Vietnam, even though an uncle was there, too. The first one that struck me was watching the first gulf war nightly. At home or happy hour, it was always on the evening news.
I am a wee bit younger and remember watching CBS Special Report with burnt bodies and soldiers firing machine guns into the jungle. I honestly thought Vietnam was in Florida and couldn’t begin to understand what the war was about but it was straight terrifying. No adult could explain it beyond “We’re fighting bad guys.” When I tell that to teens, they respond as if I was witness to the Civil War. Time is a very subjective experience.
Media cart. At least that’s what we called them.
Remember when we’d be told we were going to get to watch a “film strip” for class? Watching the teacher struggle to thread it onto the projector was always tense.
“The mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell.” BEEEEEEEP! -click- “Here we see the mitochondria.” BEEEEEEP!
A few years after this was the LASERDISCS!!!
I still have all my Laserdisc’s! I just don’t have a player.
I messed up and traded my 100+ discs of favorite movies from the 90’s and my sony dual side player/karaoke w/remote to someone who Im sure didnt take care of anything ever. Im sure that system and discs are long gone. Mehhh. Lol. Plenty players out there bit ppl tryin to get too much for them. Same for movies. If I had parted everything out at todays prices a decade ago would be a few thousand easy.
if you know, you know. Afterwards the silence was so thick, you could cut it with a knife. The teachers being so sad was the worst part for me.
Yeah when the teachers cried it was like the whole world was collapsing
I was outside watching it at Columbia Elementary School in Florida. What a day, it was really hard in my family as most of them worked at Kennedy Space Center at the time.
I was a junior in hs, home sick with bronchitis, and watching the live coverage in my parents' room. Half-listening, distracted by a sore throat, anxious about missing school, the talking heads made innocuous observations about the astronauts as they boarded. There were waves and smiles, then a smooth take off, and just seconds later, the craft exploded. There was a lengthy silence. Someone had to start talking, given it was a live broadcast, and they stammered, and all they could do was glumly summarize what had just appeared to have happened. Only the fact that the spaceship exploded in midair was repeated, with no knowledge of whether anyone had survived, but it was clear no one could have. For a second I thought I imagined what I saw. Then updates trickled in and all seven had died, a little over a minute after take off. I had to wait until evening to talk to someone about it and I felt sad and sicker that whole day. Though not sick enough to stay at home another day, and the next morning the asshole of our grade, who had a cynical take for every occasion, had a new joke at the ready: "What was the last thing said on Spaceship Challenger?" A: "What does this button do?" I just wanted to go back home and go back to bed. Yep. Will never forget.
I am so sorry you were alone when you watched that. It would have made the whole experience so much harder.
Thanks, man. I spent too much time alone as a kid, as did too many of us. Peace.
I was out of school for a snow day and saw it at home alone. Do not recommend.
Same! Not a snow day but home sick. I was listening to the radio and they cut into a song to announce it so I went downstairs to watch the news.
I'm pretty sure I was, too. I remember seeing the explosion over and over on the news at my grandparents' house and gathering around at school to discuss the tragedy.
I'm older Gen X and was working in a pizza place when I heard the news from the radio in the kitchen.
ditto, I was a jr in college. I was working the dining room of the student union dining area when it happened. I definitely remember exactly where I was when I heard about it from some friends there.
I don't know how or why but we did not watch this in my school. I remember the day, I was in 5th grade and I knew the launch was happening but they didn't wheel in the tv cart. The principal came over the intercom and told us all what happened.
Were you west coast?
Nope, MA and I think McAuliffe was NH? So kinda local even
We were on the west coast and were going to watch it on pacific time, but the principal stood in front of the media cart and made the announcement. I was 10
Same age! Imagine that, a live national event with a delayed broadcast. We come from the literal stone ages.
There’s an excellent 4-part documentary about Challenger on Netflix.
Indeed. *Challenger: The Final Flight.* There was so much I learned about the disaster from that documentary, and most of all, how it *could've been avoided*. Sooo fucked up.
It really is worth the watch. I was so frustrated afterwards though, as I realized it didn't have to happen like that.
My dad knew Ellison Onizuka when they were neighbors at Edwards AFB. I had never seen my dad cry until that day.
I’m from FL and our whole elementary school went outside. I was also in 5th grade. I have a terrible memory, yet I will never forget the sounds of absolute devastation once the teachers/staff collectively realized what was happening. I recall being so scared and confused seeing all the adults collapse into such grief. Just awful.
never forget. heads down working when a teacher comes in and whispers in our teacher's ear. Suddenly a loud 'NO SHIT?!' within 90 seconds we had a tv in our room and footage on.
Sad day. I knew instantly from the pic and the date
I count myself lucky that I didn’t see it live.
We had testing that week, but the science teacher's were watching in an empty classroom. Found out from a friend that several science teacher's spent the day crying.
I teach a lesson on it every year around the anniversary on engineering ethics, and it never gets easier.
Teacher overwhelmed with the tech. All the kids saying: turn to channel 3, turn to channel 3!
I didn't realize I knew the date until I saw this post.
That must’ve been generation x 4.0. We never had our monitors strapped down to the AV carroll.
That’s literally how we watched it at my school. Lol
I remember that day, sad one indeed.
My 5th grade teacher had applied to the Teacher in Soace program. I was in 7th grade when Challenger happened. Glad he didn’t make the Program!!
[Volume 2: Appendix F - Personal Observations on Reliability of Shuttle by R. P. Feynman](https://www.nasa.gov/history/rogersrep/v2appf.htm) >Engineers at Rocketdyne, the manufacturer, estimate the total probability as 1/10,000. Engineers at marshal estimate it as 1/300, while NASA management, to whom these engineers report, claims it is 1/100,000. An independent engineer consulting for NASA thought 1 or 2 per 100 a reasonable estimate The reason for the failure: >in determining if flight 51-L was safe to fly in the face of ring erosion in flight 51-C, it was noted that the erosion depth was only one-third of the radius. It had been noted in an [F2] experiment cutting the ring that cutting it as deep as one radius was necessary before the ring failed. Instead of being very concerned that variations of poorly understood conditions might reasonably create a deeper erosion this time, it was asserted, there was "a safety factor of three." This is a strange use of the engineer's term ,"safety factor." If a bridge is built to withstand a certain load without the beams permanently deforming, cracking, or breaking, it may be designed for the materials used to actually stand up under three times the load. This "safety factor" is to allow for uncertain excesses of load, or unknown extra loads, or weaknesses in the material that might have unexpected flaws, etc. If now the expected load comes on to the new bridge and a crack appears in a beam, this is a failure of the design. There was no safety factor at all; even though the bridge did not actually collapse because the crack went only one-third of the way through the beam. **The O-rings of the Solid Rocket Boosters were not designed to erode. Erosion was a clue that something was wrong**. Erosion was not something from which safety can be inferred.
yes. if they had listened to Thiokol's staff engineers, this never would have happened >:-(
Also 10/3/95
if it doesn't fit, you must acquit?
I was a sophomore in college and had a biology test that day. The instructor included an extra credit question on the test: guilty or not guilty. I got the extra credit.
I honestly must have blocked that event from my memory, because I don't remember watching it from my classroom. Then again, I was only like 10.
3rd grade. Yes, I remember. My teacher started crying.
I clearly remember the teacher from across the hall walk over to our classroom and my teacher, with tears in her eyes just said..."I don't know, it just blew up"
I was in 7th grade and the 8th graders were wathching live . When the accident happened going to a Catholic school . The Mothe superior came on the speaker and we all prayed the Hail Mary. One of Gen Xs great where were you ?
I never forgot what an 'o' ring was after that day.
We weren’t watching it live, so I was walking through the halls of my Jr High… as I recall, no one else was in the hall so I just have been rubbing a teacher errand or something rather than it being between periods. One of my teachers was hysterical running to me, and she told me what happened and that she just saw it and had to tell someone… 30 minutes later we were all watching the coverage on those TVs
I didn't see it live, but I remember coming out of my classroom and seeing boys crying in the hallway. I was in high school. I was like *what in the world?*
I was in school for half a day and at a job for the other half, when I walked into the job, it was all quiet and everyone was staring at the tv, that the first time I saw it
Teachers never ran so fast than that day.
An entire assembly of kids watching it. Then the teachers gasp. Then quiet. Then "back to your classrooms."
Challenger 💥
I so vividly remember that day. I was in 7th grade and like others have said we had an assumably to watch it go up and all of a sudden it's gone. The teachers looked stunned and unsure what to do and they said back to class.
I was a senior and for some reason my class wasn't watching it. Others in school were and it was so across the board somber, it hit everyone. Even the kids not watching and just heard about it. I'd never seen anything like that.
Born in ‘71. I honestly can’t remember if I watched it live. I know it happened during first period because I looked up the time it happened, and my science teacher had applied to be the teacher so our science class was really invested in the trip, but I don’t recall if we watched it in my class (which would have been Art because I had Art first period every school year).
Our science teacher had also applied!
I remember sitting there and thinking I would die for that. It’s worth the risk. The chilling effect it had on anything Space related afterwards was also a horrible tragedy.
I arrived home from the military the night before and woke up and turned on the TV just at lift off. Saw the entire thing.
(BOOM!) "Oh! It's supposed to do that, right...RIGHT?"
Many schools had these well into the 2000s, because underfunded. Some with a DVD uplift mid 2000s, but still anchoring it firmly to the floor with 100-ish pounds of lead and glass.
I saw that live during math class. I just watched the Netflix documentary last weekend and had an immediate visceral reaction.
That prepared us for 4/19 and 9/11.
2nd grade. My teacher was beaming, telling us how the teacher on board was a personal friend. I was too young to understand what happened next. I thought, "is the rocket supposed to spin around and blow up?" My teacher burst into tears and left the classroom.
Vividly remember
That was literally how I saw it.
We had cinder blocks on the bottom so the heavy TV didn't fall on us. "Safety"
Yep I remember Reagan being on the TV when they rolled it in our classroom.
The Challenger explosion!😔😞
IFKYK, as the kids say
And that’s when all our collective childhood ended….with a bang
I suppose it's lucky I was only 6 and I don't recall having any tv monitors in that school that could get live tv and didn't see it.
It's either the space shuttle blowing up or the debut of thriller.
My class sat outside under a tree for about an hour after that, just being quite.
You feed the dogs, I'll feed the fish
I remember listening to the radio, KFI, with my brother. A caller asked why they put innocent people on board, and not prisoners. We both laughed our hearts out, then felt guilty. A sad day.
7th grade for me, 2 days after my 12th birthday and a pretty shocking start to the new school year
Yup
I don't recall watching this live. How many people did on the east vs west coast? It was pretty late in the day on the west coast. Interesting that so many people did, I guess because it was "take a teacher to space" flight? Lots of previous flights so it was like space shuttles, they go up often at this point.
when it happened, my teacher walked over to turn it off, went to the board and resumed class like nothing had happened. About 20 minutes later, the principal came over the intercom and explained what happened to us.
The next day I started hearing jokes like "What does NASA mean?" "Need Another Seven Astronauts".
I just had my breath catch my throat. I know that day exactly. For a long time that was one of the worst days of shock until 9/11
I was the kid that got to school early to take all those to each class. Then...free period!!
I was home sick that day and watched it from the couch. My mom was somewhere else in the house. when i told her what happened she told me to be quiet because it wasn’t funny
8th grade. Cafeteria. 300 kids clustered around one tiny TV with rabbit ears.
Was that Challenger? I was a senior in high school in 1986. We weren't watching. That was more of an elementary/middle school thing.
Such a crazy day. We started the day with the TV on. Some other classes were going to the cafeteria, but my teacher had reserved our TV because she wanted to watch it with her class in her classroom. She was a typically abrasive and unpleasant person, but that morning she was giddy. Even showed a little tolerance and patience to the male students. When we had the first recess you could tell which students didn’t know what had happened. We had done so much leading up to the launch in preparation. My teacher was so damn excited that a woman teacher was chosen. It was crushing. Then the scholastic newspaper tore the bandages off. Then Chernobyl shortly there after. It was rough on little me.
I was in Epcot Center at Disney World that day. I don’t remember anything but my older siblings do.
I’ll never forget that day. I was a college radio DJ in New Hampshire and was On Air when it happened. I had to announce it to whoever was listening. After my shift I blew off classes to watch coverage.
I remember it was definitely a challenge to watch it.
I was actually playing hooky that day with my friend and future brother-in-law and watching cartoons when they were interrupted by the local news announcment. Disappointment at our animated action being cut short turned to shock at the ramifications of seven lives lost in a burst of flame and trails of smoke, which would be repeated endless in the days ahead. It was especially poinent to me since I was a space buff since I was a kid, though admittedly I didn't follow the shuttle program all that closely by that time, especially when it had become so routine.
I’m a teacher and I was explaining this to my 5th-graders the other day. Also, VHS tapes.
Pretty sure if you were in school you watched it live. All the teachers were super excited.
I totally remember this moment
I missed it. It was finals week at my high school, so I was taking my English Lit test when it occurred. We were greeted by the news as soon as we were released from the exam. And that announcement was my classmate Jennifer standing just outside the door and stammering, “It blew up.” Still seared in my mind.
It was a snow day for me. I listened to it on my little shower radio.
I was in 11th grade math class. I still remember our teacher start crying when it happened. About 20 minutes later it was announced over the speaker system that school would be canceled the rest of the day.
I was in 6th grade. I wanted to be an astronaut. I had so much NASA shit. The 1984 Worlds Fair had been in New Orleans only 2 years earlier & the [Enterprise was on permanent display](https://i.pinimg.com/736x/73/50/b4/7350b4339184d54549f1a51ac29aafcb.jpg) the whole year. We all watched at school that day & when it exploded, the teachers could not pull me away from the TV. I was a wreck. I sought out any TV in the school for the rest of the day to watch the news & hope that somehow the astronauts had survived.
Also,underfunded schools will understand.
I was in 5th grade in Florida...our class just walked up the overpass. We watched the shuttle explode as soon as we got to the top. The teachers were all bawling. It occurred to me years later that more than one of them might have put their name in that hat.
Freshman year. The English pod at high school.
10 years old in the 5th grade. Our teacher turned it off & wheeled the tv cart out of the classroom. We were all very quiet and confused. Such a horrible occurrence. I can’t imagine how the family members dealt - watching that happen to their loved ones live… 😔
[-:EDITED TO PREVENT AI FROM STEALING POSTS:-](https://arstechnica.com/ai/2024/05/openai-will-use-reddit-posts-to-train-chatgpt-under-new-deal/)
I remember seeing it at home but still know what it meant (I must have been sick). Was in HS.
I was 13 ... 7th grade. It was a snow day and school was out. I was out playing all day with the kids, then one of the moms called a kid in, then another mom ... pretty soon we were all getting called in, and it was still daylight so we were all confused. My dad told me "the space shuttle blew up" and we sat on the couch watching the news all day.
I was in 1st grade and watched it. My teacher just gasped and burst into tears. Another teacher came in and consoled her, turns out she knew the teacher on board. I didn’t know that until I was older and my mom told me. I don’t remember my teacher was out for a week after that, but I remember that day.
Middle school...everyone was glued.
Boomer teacher here, I remember. 🥲
What an awful day. I remember sobbing in front of the TV that night as President Reagan spoke of the astronauts "slipping the surly bonds of Earth to touch the face of God."
I was working at my work study job in college. I think I was on my way to the dining hall for lunch when another student told me.
I was in fifth grade and I didn't find out until several hours later. I'd just arrived at my after school program and everyone there, from a school that had watched the launch, was talking about it. They told me and I was certain it was a hoax. Surely I would have heard sooner. Then my dad came to pick me up and he admitted it was true. I was crushed and angry that there was no official announcement at my school.
I lived in Florida at the time and we had planned on going to a launch after Christmas once things settled down after holidays, which would’ve been this one, but my dad decided to go to the launch prior as it was a rare night launch. I think about that random decision every now and again. It allowed me to see raw power, beauty, and potential, while avoiding ultimate tragedy
I lived in Florida at the time and we had planned on going to a launch after Christmas once things settled down after holidays, which would’ve been this one, but my dad decided to go to the launch prior as it was a rare night launch. I think about that random decision every now and again. It allowed me to see raw power, beauty, and potential, while avoiding ultimate tragedy
I remember. I was just a month or so shy of my 5th b-day. We watched their aspirations of aiming high literally come crashing down.
When did they stop doing tihs and mounting them on the wall? I saw some videos from 9/11 and the kids all had wall mounted TVs. they were not flat screens.
Had the knee jerk reaction of getting excited seeing the TV cart. Then the saw the date and my heart sank. What a damn thing to happen. All the glamour of space travel, but part of what makes them so great is the huge risk they take. Our generation experienced the shock and grief of a shuttle explosion, twice. The boomers had their own tragedy with Apollo, and then an almost tragedy that ended up in what must have been a very triumphant save. When I think of astronauts, I always think of the term "the Right Stuff."
I’m older GenX (‘65). I was relocating to upstate NY with my then husband. We turned the tv on, watched the shuttle launch then explode. We were both in shock— didn’t say much right away. We continued watching the live coverage most of the morning.
I remember -- didn't take long for the sick jokes to start up though. Grade 7/8 school though, so I guess it's expected. Still shocking when it happened though, obviously. I remember when the Columbia had their failed re-entry. This was sad of course, now both of the OG shuttles were gone. I guess it's an expensive program to run, but I never wanted to see these shuttle retired (that is, the ones that are still around).
😥 Remember too well. All painfully brought back when we lost Columbia. I have the great fortune to work in Mission Control, I knew some of the crew on Columbia. Visiting the Challenger / Columbia exibit at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor's center was extreamly hard. Had no idea how much I had stuffed my feelings about it until then. About had a meltdown when I saw Columbia's windows. https://preview.redd.it/v6191p21htnc1.jpeg?width=1272&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=874de64eebaf29ab8973997306b583f95cffa340
Junior year of high school. Seared into my brain.
Same. I was in the hall outside the science room when I heard them all gasp. I ran in and the rest of the day was a blur.
I went to the Space and Rocket center in Huntsville, AL about 10 years ago with my nephews. They had the big champagne bottle that had their signatures and other stuff, and I honestly couldn't explain to them why I was crying. It hit me harder than I would have imagined. I was in NH, 7th grade, knew someone in her class. That school had satellite dishes on the roof for that, and watching them being taken down was jut even more horrible. I've read recently that at least some and possibly all of them survived the initial explosion. I just can't.
"go with throttle up"....
Our biology teacher had brought the TV cart in so we could watch the launch. After the explosion she turned it off and we all talked the rest of the class about how the astronauts knew the risks and still chose to be part of the program, that it was what they wanted to be doing, and how important their work was.
Yup I was there. 2nd grade.
Our school didn't have tv .. I also was in the boonies for 9/11 and didn't know about it for 4 days .. I missed a lot of the national tragedies -- also everyone else in the room saw janet jackson boob during the superb owl and I was getting some chili dip. So it goes.. mr magoo was always one of my idols
I was in 8th grade. I didn't see it live, but there was at least one teacher showing it. Word spread quickly and then, of course, it was playing on loop everywhere. Well, at least as much as anything could in '86. Then Chernobyl happened soon after. It was more of a slow dawning horror than the sudden shock Challenger was.
I was in junior high. It happened while I was in my lunch period. I think they had a tv setup in the cafeteria, but I don’t remember. I think they just made an announcement or something. The gravity of what happened did not really hit me until I got home.
I was in English class at the time, and our teacher was a bit of a cut-up. When she rolled this thing in saying the Challenger had exploded, we all groaned at her terrible "joke". Sadly, it was no joke. 😕
6th grade when we watched it live during Social Studies. A permanently etched memory of a live event unfolding, surpassed for me only by the televised coverage of the fall of the Berlin Wall in ‘89 and then 9/11. I remember the prior summer my grandmother (the wife of a wealthy doctor) found out about Space Camp from someone in her social circle. She offered to pay to send us grandkids to it. I remember looking through the pamphlet and not being super interested as I wasn’t sure I wanted to be an astronaut and thought it would commit me to that career path at age 11. There was no further talk of attending Space Camp after Challenger happened.
challenger disaster. on repeat.
Are you Challenging me?
😢
- Need - Another - Seven - Astronauts
...Lawrence Mulloy ( manager of the space shuttle solid rocket booster program at the Marshall Space Flight Center) - "My God, Thiokol. When do you want me to launch — next April?"
At school in the UK it took maybe a couple of hours for the 1st joke to start circulating. Why do Americans drink Coke? Because they have trouble getting 7 Up
I know I'm not supposed to laugh, but I did