Shuttle Challenger: 30 Years Ago Today

[amazinblue82]

Tuesday, January 28, 1986, around 11:40 am

I was at work, unable to learn any details that happened until I got home. Got the word from the client company employees we were working with (I was a junior associate in a CPA firm, fresh outta undergrad).

Some of the employees were in tears at the news as some of their kids were watching on TV .. some were struggling what to tell them when they picked them up from school. Many, like me, kinda in shock but we had work to do.

Remember what you were doing at the time -- if its not too unpleasant to recount?

I didnt have kids yet, though we were expecting our first child. I remember hoping we'd continue to reach and strive though, imagining a better world for my children...same as my Dad explained to me 20 years earlier: Grissom, Chafee, and White in Apollo 1.

Like some of you, as we have discussed in other threads, I am inspired by anything to do with science and space technology. I was sad for the families affected, but hopeful we'd (society) would keep reaching: Ad Astra Per Aspera.

 

[saylor]

i was in mr brighams biology class, watching it live.

 

[cbarge]

Gym class Grade 7,saw it on the Coach's b&w 12 inch tv on his desk.

 

[BigFury]

8th grade science class.. we were all returned to our home room to watch the coverage live until dismissal. Aweful day

 

[commando1]

I never had such a sick feeling in my stomach until 9/11.

 

[detmatt]

I was home from school sick on the couch and watched it play out. It doesn't seem like 30 years have passed.

 

[Rwc]

Working at the local ford dealer. We all ended up watching on TV most of the afternoon

 

[Mopars & Missiles]

Yes, saw it on TV at home. Too damn old to be in school, gym class, biology, science, etc. Instant sadness and disbelief when it happened. Took days to get over it.

 

[amazinblue82]

we studied this incident in grad school five years later. the whole O ring thing AND the NASA management culture, et al.

students/executives alike, around the world, are still studying this incident (my daughter had it grad school in 2013) because the factors leading to it are endemic in small are large companies aliek.

if any of you had any interest in the whole story of this incident, its fascinating and unsettling at the same time. not the obvious morbid stuff we should not get into, but how it was a calamity that seemed "destined" to unfold (twice, unfortunately).

this is a good one on challenger..if might even be youtube.

Challenger Disaster - Facts & Summary - HISTORY.com

this one is more technical... longish but very detailed... from engineering.com

The Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster > ENGINEERING.com

 

[67-Fury]

Wasnt alive but still powerful to watch. I dont really like watching footage of that stuff.

 

[amazinblue82]

One of Ronald Reagan's finest speeches..one of the finest EVER by any President.
Still get moved by it...solemn, appropriate, yet hopeful and of great consolation to a saddened nation.

 

[70bigblockdodge]

Watched it replayed over and over on the mess deck of the USS Hepburn before they disconnected the cable to get underway from San Diego.

 

[1978 NYB]

I was a Sergeant First class fighting the Cold War in Europe....

And liberating Fraulein's!

 

[1978 NYB]

 

[amazinblue82]

How it happened.

 

[patrick66]

I was at home, had a day off work, and was watching the launch. All of the launches intrigued me...hell, I remember when Neil Armstrong stepped off the Lunar Module onto the Moon. Space geek stuff. Just couldn't believe it. You knew instantly that was not a normal throttle-up. No question. Damn! And it's been 30 years since!