32 years ago today

[roadman65]

 America's space program took a major blow!  We lost seven pioneers.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/challenger-disaster-marks-30th-anniversary-gallery-1.1593956?pmSlide=1.1593932

[NE2]

And insurance rates for teachers went up everywhere.

[Jardine]

I was home, had Price is Right on, and Dan Rather interrupted (without his glasses on) and grimly announced an explosion on the Space Shuttle Challenger.

As soon as CBS was able to pull footage, it was immediately obvious the explosion was the entire vehicle.  Dan came back on with his glasses, and things went downhill from there as we watched debris falling and endless running of the failed launch sequence.

Especially tough was the confusion on all the faces of the folks at the cape assemble to watch the launch.

Then as now, there were some difficulties in the reporting; I recall a parachute seen falling amidst the debris being ID'd as coast guard rescue personnel and actually it was from one of the SRB's recovery system.

In the weeks that followed and the flawed launch decision was revealed it just seemed everything was getting worse and worse.

[1995hoo]

My brother and I were home from school because it was a teacher workday. Our mom was a teacher, so our father stayed home that day. My brother and I were playing Intellivision games (most likely Burger Time) when our dad came in and unceremoniously changed the TV to the news–he'd been on the phone with someone and heard what happened.

The next day at school the reaction was mostly typical junior high tastelessness, jokes like how you knew Christa McAuliffe had dandruff (I won't give the punchline here)–stuff that seemed funny to 12-year-old boys and is hideously embarrassing in retrospect.

[Takumi]

I was supposed to be born that day. I stayed in the womb another 10.

[jp the roadgeek]

I was in 4th grade and home sick from school that day.  My parents had just got home from Super Bowl XX in New Orleans.  I called my dad at work to wish him a happy birthday.  I hang up, and he calls back less than a minute later to tell me to put on television because  he had heard someone say that the Space Shuttle blew up.  I turned on CBS, and there was Dan Rather with the special report.   

[CtrlAltDel]

And insurance rates for teachers went up everywhere.

You say a lot of jerkish things on this site, but I think this one takes the cake.

[Otto Yamamoto]

I was at work in the Branch Clinic at the Naval Research Lab. It was aBob slow day for us, and we just kind of stood there in shock. I recall thinking that this was the beginning of the end of the space programme

P00I

[MNHighwayMan]

Thirty-two years ago today, I was —6.

[Otto Yamamoto]

Thirty-two years ago today, I was —6.

I'll wager you were bloody cold, then.

P00I

[slorydn1]

I was in my sophmore year of high school. We were in 4th period biology class and Mr Casmir wheeled in a TV so that we could watch the launch live. We watched it blow up and all just sat there quiet, stunned by what we had just seen.

I ended up going home sick that afternoon, not because of the disaster but because of the fact that I spent the previous day outside in below zero windchills at the rally for the Chcago Bears who had just come back from New Orleans after winning Super Bowl XX. In fact I missed the next 2 and a half weeks of school fighting a case of pneumonia.

[jeffandnicole]

I was in 5th grade. One of our 6th grade teachers had applied into the program.  That class went down to the library where the only TV in the school was located to watch the launch.  I heard she was crying, thinking that it could've been her up there.

The next day at school the reaction was mostly typical junior high tastelessness, jokes like how you knew Christa McAuliffe had dandruff (I won’t give the punchline here)—stuff that seemed funny to 12-year-old boys and is hideously embarrassing in retrospect.

While true, it also shows how quick kids get over stuff.  Parents needlessly worry that the kids are affected greatly. Some are, but many move on quickly.

[MNHighwayMan]

Thirty-two years ago today, I was —6.

I'll wager you were bloody cold, then.

Lonely, too. My parents didn't even speak to each other back then.

[US 81]

This time of year is painful for many space fans: besides Challenger, there was the Apollo One fire on the launch pad on January 27, 1967, and the loss of Columbia February 1, 2003. 

[PHLBOS]

I was on semester break in my sophomore year in college and working at the Swampscott, MA Friendly's when the Challenger disaster happened.  When word got out about the Challenger blowing up, the shift-supervisor on duty moved the small (15") black-and-white TV from the breakroom to the main working floor so that the employees can periodically view the special reports.

Side bar: Two days earlier, the New England Patriots got blown away in their first-ever Super Bowl appearance against the Chicago Bears (Super Bowl XX).

As a result, there were at least a couple of jokes that tied together both the Challenger disaster and the Patriots Super Bowl loss that circulated around back then.

[Jim]

Similar story here to many others of my age.  I was off school because it was regents exam week in New York and I wasn't taking any January exams.  I was watching the launch and it happened while I was making myself some lunch.  I remember being glued to the television the rest of the day.  It was probably the first real "remember where you were when it happened" moment of my life.

[kkt]

I was heading to class on the bus.  When I got to the bus stop, someone at the stop, a stranger, told me.  I went through the day but kind of in shock.  Before then, the United States never lost an astronaut on a space mission, and it had been 19 years since the loss of any astronaut (the Apollo 1 fire in a training exercise).  I thought we'd learned enough and were careful enough not to have those kinds of accidents.

[kalvado]

Just wondering.. How many people over here did read Roger's commission report and Feynman's memoir of investigation?
From my perspective, an absolute must-read for anyone in engineering or technical field.

[Beltway]

One of my team members had a small portable TV that he brought for the purpose of us watching space shuttle launces.  They were still a pretty big deal in 1986.

We saw the launch and the aftermath.

[Beltway]

Just wondering.. How many people over here did read Roger's commission report and Feynman's memoir of investigation?
From my perspective, an absolute must-read for anyone in engineering or technical field.

I read enough of it to have a technical understanding of what happened and why.

Ditto for the Columbia space shuttle disaster.

[kalvado]

Just wondering.. How many people over here did read Roger's commission report and Feynman's memoir of investigation?
From my perspective, an absolute must-read for anyone in engineering or technical field.

I read enough of it to have a technical understanding of what happened and why.

Ditto for the Columbia space shuttle disaster.

No compilations actually equal to first-hand account of clusterf$%k NASA created out of space shuttle program.

[kkt]

Just wondering.. How many people over here did read Roger's commission report and Feynman's memoir of investigation?
From my perspective, an absolute must-read for anyone in engineering or technical field.

I read all of Feynman's report, and I read part of the commission report and skimmed the rest.

Wayne Hale's blog at

https://waynehale.wordpress.com/

is also very interesting!  He was a project manager on the Shuttle and writes a lot about the Shuttle program, and NASA and engineering in general. 

[ET21]

This was all history lessons for me in school until I witnessed the Columbia incident with their re-entry 

[Beltway]

Just wondering.. How many people over here did read Roger's commission report and Feynman's memoir of investigation?
From my perspective, an absolute must-read for anyone in engineering or technical field.

I read enough of it to have a technical understanding of what happened and why.
Ditto for the Columbia space shuttle disaster.

No compilations actually equal to first-hand account of clusterf$%k NASA created out of space shuttle program.

They accomplished amazing things with the 132 successful shuttle missions.

However they lost 2 of the 5 shuttles thru major management failures, and that is very regrettable.

[SectorZ]

And insurance rates for teachers went up everywhere.

You say a lot of jerkish things on this site, but I think this one takes the cake.

Amazing what qualifies as hate-filled to him, and then he says crap like this.