(http://a57.foxnews.com/static/managed/img/Scitech/604/341/Challenger%20Crew.jpg)
25 Years ago today we remember and honor the valiant crew of the Space Shuttle Challenger who gave thier lives in the quest for science and discovery.
Where were you? What do you remember? What indelable marks were left in your memory that still remain today?
i was in providence RI at graduate school studying planetary geology. all the
professors could think about was how this would affect their research.
a bunch of self centered A-holes.
I was in the 3rd grade. We watched the launch on TV.
I remember the explosion but I don't think I really understood what was happening.
I was living in Portland Oregon, I remember the event but I don't think it left any lasting marks on my memory, unlike 9-11. That was truly horrific.
RIP Challenger crew, sleep well.
Quote from: Monsterlover on January 28, 2011, 06:40:12 AM
I was in the 3rd grade. We watched the launch on TV.
I remember the explosion but I don't think I really understood what was happening.
Similar memories here.
I had a nephew who was born the day before the launch, so that always kind of sucks remembering it since it was on 24/7 while he was in the hospital.
mitt
sophomore in high school.
watched the launch during my lunch break but can't remember if i watched it live, or a replay after the fact.
typically shallow teenager...
I was walking to class in College and heard some broadcast journalism student lamenting that he wasn't on the air when it happened.
I think more than anything, I remember the moment of confusion and complete astonishment by everyone watching the CNN broadcast - one of those "did that just really happen" feelings as well as that deadly silence where you could have heard a pin drop which seemed to last for hours.
Final months of my first marriage...waiting at home for limo to the airport...it made a dark chapter that much more darker
Junior High. One of my teachers was a finalist in the selection process so it was a little more "real". I remember it coming at a time when it really seemed like we were making exponential leaps forward and that colony on the moon was just around the corner, then all of a sudden it stopped. The dangerous reality of our human audacity to challenge the forces of nature that hold us to the ground became more perceptible, which for me made all the prior launches, and all the future ones as well, all the more extraordinary.
Astronauts are my kind of heroes and hearing the renewed telling of the stories of these seven on this anniversary still inspires me to learn more and do the best I can.
I was at work. At the time I was a test engineer working for an aerospace company that no longer exists. We had many shuttle related programs...for the orbiter itself as well as payloads. Work usually came to a stop to watch launches and nearly everyone was at a screen. The effect on all of us was very intense. Very sad day.
In the Air Force, stationed in Germany. We were watching on the armed forces network.
Junior in high school. We were watching the launch in science class. Pretty much cast a pall on the subject matter.....
Sophomore HS math class.
I had the flu (the only time in my life I called off of work sick) was laying on sofa watching and the second it went I thought "OH SHIT, they are all dead."
I was also sick at home 4th grade. I was watching it live and I remember going to my mom and telling her the shuttle had just exploded. She thought I was telling her that it had launched. I remember that the announcer did not quite understand what was happening. Then it was just silence.
Having a hamburger for lunch at Chilli's with the mechanic that worked for our trucking company.
I also remember the bang in the sky when the space shuttle Columbia exploded over Texas. I was at my girlfriend's house (now wife) and she asked me what was that noise? At the time we had no idea. We had a birthday party for her son at a little kid's gym later that morning and were shocked to see all the coverage on the TVs at the gym. I'll never forget the sound of that explosion and what it meant. :'(
Science class in 9th or 10th grade. We were watching live when it happened.
Was in a department store (playing hooky from work) and passed by the electronics section; everyone was standing there watching and then silence
Quote from: Monsterlover on January 28, 2011, 06:40:12 AM
I was in the 3rd grade. We watched the launch on TV.
I remember the explosion but I don't think I really understood what was happening.
Almost the same here. They had brought in a TV to our class room as a special thing to watch it live. The whole class was watching.
They say that every generation experiences at least one major event which they will always remember where they were, what they were doing, etc...
This was certainly the first for me.
Yep, you're right. I was in elementary school here in Dallas when JFK was shot. Remember it like it was yesterday. 9/11 too. Some things are burned into your memory. Some good, some not so good.
I was 3 years old
was in science class in 7th grade, i think we were watching it on tv and when it happened it was more like "ok something went wrong, or did it? maybe that was just the rocket part shooting off". nobody in the class was freaked out by it, the teacher was more than anyone else.
sad to say this wasn't as much of a "where were you" moment for me or my classmates at the time.
I would say the where were you moment was more the Fall of the Berlin wall, since that was the end of the soviet union as we knew it, and at the time the cold war was still on, so that was more of a dramatic thing, not having to worry about WW3 the next day possibly.
I was in 7th grade as well. I was right after lunch. Between lunch and 5th period, I had to go to the nurse's office everyday to take my "Chill Pill." (ADHD... Gee, ya think?!)
The rest of the class had been watching it live, and when I walked into class Elizabeth Slossberg told me that the shuttle had blown up. I just blew her off with, "Yeah, whatever Lizard Breath..." Usually she would call me some innapropriate name right back, so I knew she was serious when she just looked at me and said, "No, really. Look."
Watching the reply over and over, I still couldn't wrap my head around what had just happened.
[bacon]
My 5th/6th grade combination class had gathered in the Library to watch the challenger launch. It didn't really "stick" at the time what had really happened.
JM
Quote from: sbrguy on January 28, 2011, 12:48:29 PM
I would say the where were you moment was more the Fall of the Berlin wall, since that was the end of the soviet union as we knew it, and at the time the cold war was still on, so that was more of a dramatic thing, not having to worry about WW3 the next day possibly.
That too. [thumbsup]
Quote from: sbrguy on January 28, 2011, 12:48:29 PM
I would say the where were you moment was more the Fall of the Berlin wall, since that was the end of the soviet union as we knew it, and at the time the cold war was still on, so that was more of a dramatic thing, not having to worry about WW3 the next day possibly.
I remember watching on TV the people beating the hell out of it with sledge hammers and the subsequent selling of pieces of it!
JM
Sophmore in social studies class. We watched shuttle going up live, and then I thought to myself, wait that's not supposed to happen is it?
Indeed it was not.
I remember after the explosion that nobody said anything for several seconds.
I believe I was in drafting class in 9th grade or so when it happened.
I remember Columbia too. Saw it on a TV in a store in Vail as I was headed to the slopes.
I remember Columbia too...
A close friend of mine is in the EPA. I remember calling him to ask him if he had seen/heard about it. I didn't get a hold of him for several days. Then I saw him on the front page of USA Today wearing the chemical suit picking up debris... :P
[bacon]
Running my Business , playing as much Golf as I could in the warm months , Body Building in the colder months and riding a Birch White and Chrome Yellow H-D Heritage Softail Classic.
Driving a '85 Porsche 928 S4, auto., Mars red w, black leather and slotted wheels .
Quad Overhead cams. V/8. Tilt Steering Wheel and Dash.
One fine car !
Very sad day .
Dolph
I was 2. I don't recall space travel or being an astronaut as something I ever thought about as a kid. Maybe this event has something to do with it?
I don't even know what an astronaut does, or why they would be someone's hero?
I was in medical school in Galveston and was home watching the launch coverage. I'm an Air Force brat and had watched every US launch since I was a toddler. Add the fact that Johnson Space Center was just up the road and that we were the medical school that did the most work there, and there was no way I was going to miss it.
My former colleague and teacher Pat Santy was in Launch Control watching, since she was the Crew Surgeon for that mission. She wrote about it at http://drsanity.blogspot.com/2005/01/challenger-flight-surgeon-remembers.html (http://drsanity.blogspot.com/2005/01/challenger-flight-surgeon-remembers.html)
I was in the 1st grade.
We were watching it on TV.
I remember my teacher turning off the tv real quick and redirecting our attention to something else.
My mom still has the local newspaper from the following day.
I saved the paper from 9-12-01 :-\
She saved that one too.
Last time I noticed she had two large totes of old newspapers. [roll]
Luckly she keeps them hidden our my dad would use them to start fires with.
Watched the launch on TV with my girlfriend and hoped, at first, that somehow the orbiter detached during the explosion and was gliding to safety. I was in grad school working on a master's in engineering mechanics (stress, strain, elasticity, plasticity, continuum mechanics etc.) There are analytical means to explain what happened but this is the best...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qAi_9quzUY
Quote from: sbrguy on January 28, 2011, 12:48:29 PM
sad to say this wasn't as much of a "where were you" moment for me or my classmates at the time.
Somewhat true for me too, though I was in my early twenties. For me and many I know, a moment more comparable and impactful was when we heard Magic Johnson was HIV+ and was retiring. :(
Joel
Quote from: orangelion03 on January 28, 2011, 08:52:49 AM
I was at work. At the time I was a test engineer working for an aerospace company that no longer exists. We had many shuttle related programs...for the orbiter itself as well as payloads. Work usually came to a stop to watch launches and nearly everyone was at a screen. The effect on all of us was very intense. Very sad day.
I was working for Rockwell (they built the Columbia), they set up tv's in the lunchroom for launches. Stunned looks, and WTFs whispered around the room. Oh yeah I remember.