Challenger Disaster

[Andrew1972]

The only memory I have of 8th grade middle school really was the Challenger Disaster.

It was big deal for schools or more likely New Hampshire because another NH middle school teacher was on board. They had rolled out the TV cart and we got to watch the launch live and. Sitting there in awe we watched it blow up into bits on the grainy 40" TV and then the bell rung. The teacher promptly shut it off and we were like ???? And went onto the next class...

 

[PimTac]

I was just reading a news article about the 33rd year anniversary of this tragedy. A very sad day and a punch to the gut of NASA from which they never really recovered from.

 

[DoubleWasp]

Was too young for Challenger, but remember Discovery. Just very sad. Both were probably very avoidable. Especially Challenger.

 

[BMWTurboDzl]

I was home alone with a cold that day and I remember watching the entire thing sitting on the shag carpeting of the family room

 

[Chris142]

I was in science class having my head reprogrammed but sitting next to Tami....yummy! LoL

 

[DBMaster]

Happened when I was in college. Shuttle launches had become so "routine" that the only network covering it live was CNN. I remember quite clearly Reagan's speech in which he stated he was "pained to the core."

 

[Virtus_Probi]

I was waiting for a network analysis/filters class to start when I heard a guy nearby say the shuttle had exploded.
I had no idea there was a launch happening that day, so I asked if anybody had been hurt as I thought it must have exploded on the pad without a crew in it...got a very nasty response something like, "Oh yeah, everybody's fine, dumb@$&!"

Went back to my dorm after class and just couldn't believe it when I turned on the TV. A friend called to see if I had heard the news and I told him I really wasn't in a mood to talk...

The prof really messed up that class, spent so much time on things like s parameters that we only had a couple of weeks for filters at the end of the semester. Every single student was mega ticked about that...

 

[y_p_w]

Originally Posted by DoubleWasp
Was too young for Challenger, but remember Discovery. Just very sad. Both were probably very avoidable. Especially Challenger.

Discovery is on display in Virginia now at the Udvar-Hazy Center. Atlantis is at the California Science Center in Los Angeles. Endeavour is in Florida.

Are you thinking of Columbia?

There was the prototype that never went into space - Enterprise. That's on display in NYC.

And if you've ever seen one in person, they're actually quite discolored after being sent into space. That's kind of what I find odd about TV shows and movies about going into space, where everything seems so sterile and clean. Real spacecraft get dirty and stay dirty. There are several photos of the prototype Space Shuttle that never went into space next to one that did.

As for Challenger - I was at school when my computer science teacher addressed the class about it. Then we heard it straight from the principal broadcast over the intercom.

 

[Bottom_Feeder]

I was a freshman in high school. I heard people talking about it in the hallways on my way to class and thought it was a dumb rumor in poor taste. My teacher had a TV in her classroom and was playing the news for a roomful of students. She was white as a sheet and quite upset.

Sad day.

 

[Virtus_Probi]

Doesn't Discovery have the leading edges of its wings cut off due to the investigation into the cause of the Columbia disaster?

 

[ragtoplvr]

I was at work. Gary Hobbs told me. I remember the look of his face. We just left work, and went to a friends house and watched it over and over. Horrible terrible thing completely avoidable. Hubris caused the crash.

Rod

 

[Wolf359]

It was starting to get routine. There's a 3.3% death rate for Astronauts that have been in space, but some have been there multiple times so the per person per flight death rate is about 1.4%. A lot more dangerous than an airplane flight.

 

[Bottom_Feeder]

Originally Posted by y_p_w

My wife and I both too long lunches and met there that day. It was VERY cool to see them nose to nose like that.

 

[Tom NJ]

The Reagan speech was a classic. Brought me to tears.

 

[Bottom_Feeder]

Originally Posted by Virtus_Probi
Doesn't Discovery have the leading edges of its wings cut off due to the investigation into the cause of the Columbia disaster?

I believe they were at one point but they have long since been replaced. Probably not with carbon ceramic whatever-it-was, but Enterprise looks whole now.

 

[AZjeff]

If 2 passenger jets exploded for every 135 flights not many people would get on board. Those were terrible days.

 

[pandus13]

I watch this from a country far-far away.
Even being communist, next to the "Big Soviet Bear", it hurt.
Those courageous, man and women with magic wings, where preparing the outer belt future life for us, "earth-bounds".
About 2008, I visit Cape Canaveral, FL.and saw their picture on a wall. I paid my respects.

 

[cjcride]

"slipped the surly bonds of Earth to touch the face of God"

 

[Zee09]

I remember the stupid jokes that day....
What's NASA stand for??

.... Need Another Seven Astronauts......
People will make jokes about anything.
It was a real bummer of a day.

 

[Chris Meutsch]

NASA killed them unwittingly and unfortunately.
Morton Thiokol pleaded not to launch that day.......