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Showing posts 26 - 50 of 54, (reverse)
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 01/28/2006 11:36:31 AM · #26
I was in my master's degree intern program, working at a middle school. I was having lunch with my colleagues when our department secretary came and and said "the shuttle blew up just now." We all asked each other, "was that the one with the teacher?" We wheeled a TV in quickly and hooked it up just in time to turn on the news and watch the replays and coverage unfold. We probably all watched for 45 minutes to an hour before we had to disperse and go to meetings, meet kids, etc.

I was doing cassette tape correspondence with a friend of mine who was in school in Utah at the time. When I got in the car that night to drive home (about a 30 min drive), I saw the cassette recorder and dictated a "letter" to him on the way home. I prefaced my comments by saying that today was the day we lost the shuttle and the 7 astronauts - I bet we'll all remember where we were 20 years from now. Our generation's JFK assassination.
 01/28/2006 11:46:29 AM · #27
Daytona Beach, 10th Grade, in lunchroom.
Some girl came running in screaming the Shuttle Exploded.
We all thought she was crazy,but we went outside to see anyway.
The Cape isnt that far from Daytona and you could clearly see the smoke trails from the explosion.
I had a math class right after lunch and our teacher made us do work, while everyone else in our school was watching tv, I think she was in denial.
Side-Note, I also saw the very first shuttle launch, My dad took me to the beach, and the radio played "Time for me to Fly" by REO, right as it took off, its one of my favorite memories..
01/28/2006 11:47:14 AM · #28
I remember walking into my 11th grade history class from my lunch period and not a soul uttering a single word...all angling their heads up towards the small color tv monitor perched near the drop ceiling...and the sound of Peter Jennings' voice bellowing in the stillness of the air. Damn...
 01/28/2006 12:04:35 PM · #29
I was a senior at a boarding high school and several of us were watching it live in the dorm lounge between classes. The weird thing is that the guy sitting next to me turned to me and said, "watch, it's about to blow up" right before it did. It freaked everyone out pretty bad.
 01/28/2006 12:08:47 PM · #30
Driving home from North Florida to South Florida. We had pulled off the road to watch the launch. If I close my eyes I can see everything like it was at that moment. Not something I'll ever forget.
 01/28/2006 12:09:18 PM · #31
Boy, that's one of my most vivid memories of college. I just came back from a physics class at Purdue University (seriously wondering if engineering was really the right major for me). I stopped by the dorm room of my friend to discuss some homework stuff, he was watching the launch. They were literally counting down from 10 when I entered the room to watch. There were 5 of us there, we stood in absolute stunned silence watching it explode.

This was a particularly interesting launch for me as one of the teachers I had in high school was also one of the potential candidates for the launch (you'll recall this was the first flight were a civilian was chosen to tag along) - I'm glad now that she was not selected.
 01/28/2006 12:18:34 PM · #32
That was one of those days that the events leading up to the event just stick in your mind. I remember sitting in my car listening to the news before I went in to work, and they were talking about how cold it was in Florida and that they had never launched when it was that cold. Then of course, we all know what happened later.

Then that night, Ronald Reagan (god, I love that man) delivered one of my all-time favorite speeches. Especially, the final paragraph. It gives me chills every time I hear it.

01/28/2006 12:21:02 PM · #33
I was a whopping 1 1/4th years old.
 01/28/2006 12:23:59 PM · #34
Sitting in 7th grade Music class, one of the schools
teachers was the 2nd back-up to Sharon Christa McAuliffe. I
think every classroom had a TV on that day. Our school had
made big plans with the lessons we would be taught from
space. Watching the lift-off and then the "anomaly", just
made the heart sink, hoping they somehow survived.
01/28/2006 01:17:30 PM · #35
I was just waking up to go to work ... my alarm was a clock-radio tuned to CBS, and as soon as I heard Dan Rather's voice I could tell there had been a major disaster, even though it was some little while before the nature of it was mentioned specifically.
 01/28/2006 01:21:37 PM · #36
I was in Caracas, Venezuela. My seven year old came running up to me at school. He was really shocked because "a teacher was killed, Mom!"
 01/28/2006 01:30:12 PM · #37
I had just graduated from college and was recovering from having my wisdom teeth pulled the day before, so I was watching the launch on live TV from home by myself. I remember being horrified, and although the media was saying "we aren't certain what has happened and if the astronauts are ok" I knew that this was catastrophic and that no one would survive. I too believed that this would be our "JFK moment" and that we would remember forever where we were when the Challenger Shuttle exploded.
 01/28/2006 01:33:28 PM · #38
Originally posted by CBalck:
I too believed that this would be our "JFK moment" and that we would remember forever where we were when the Challenger Shuttle exploded.

Darn it, I went through that one too, in elementary school ... : (
 01/28/2006 01:43:21 PM · #39
Originally posted by GeneralE:

Darn it, I went through that one too, in elementary school ... : (


I also know where I was when JFK was shot... about 3 1/2 months from being born! (not to rub it in or anything!) The Challenger disaster was also memorable because it is the day before my birthday.
 01/28/2006 02:18:52 PM · #40
Originally posted by larryslights:
That was one of those days that the events leading up to the event just stick in your mind. I remember sitting in my car listening to the news before I went in to work, and they were talking about how cold it was in Florida and that they had never launched when it was that cold. Then of course, we all know what happened later.

Then that night, Ronald Reagan (god, I love that man) delivered one of my all-time favorite speeches. Especially, the final paragraph. It gives me chills every time I hear it.


That was a very fine speech.

As for me, I was 400 miles SW of Cabo San Lucas, Baja California, Mexico on a fishing boat fighting a yellowfin tuna when it happened. We heard about it via the radio, but of course I'm deaf so I had no details. I didn't see the video until I got back home 12 days later.

Robt.
 01/28/2006 02:39:24 PM · #41
I woke up to the news (15 hours time difference from EST) and watched the endless reruns. I was in uni at the time and followed the space programme fairly closely. It was certainly one of those 1/2 dozen "where were you when...." moments in life.
 01/28/2006 02:39:26 PM · #42
I was home sick from school. I the watched the coverage all day on ABC. I will never forget that day.
 01/28/2006 02:42:39 PM · #43
There are 4 or 5 days that I will remember in exact detail for my entire existance... John Lennon's death, the Challenger accident, my wedding day, the birth of my son and 911...

I went to Lansing Comm College that morning. I always walked past an annonymous profs office because he had a huge white sheet of paper on his door. Anyone could write anything they wanted on the paper regardless. On this morning I was on my way back to the car. Stopped to peruse the 'white board' as I called it. There was this note: What do you think the Challenger accident will do to the space industry? I RAN to my car, RACED to my girlfriends (now my lovely wife's) place and watched it over and over and over on TV sobbing...

Message edited by author 2006-01-28 14:43:47.
 01/28/2006 02:58:12 PM · #44
I was on my way to a college class.

I actually didn't hear about it until I got to the first term physics-lab (the class I was on my way to), but tradition was broken and we worked on basic static friction experiements while listening to it play out again and again on the radio.

David
 01/28/2006 03:24:26 PM · #45
I was sitting in my great aunts living room; as the shuttle exploded, she proclaimed that the smoke was in the shape of the virgin Mary; alluding to the fact that God was angry for our heathen space exploration.

Anyway, she would have gotten along just fine with New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagen.

Message edited by author 2006-02-02 07:13:36.
 01/28/2006 03:27:03 PM · #46
I was in 7th grade in Civics class. Our class was ushered to the library where we watched the footage. I've always been a space buff, so the memory sticks vividly in my head.

I actually had a small model of the Challenger I had assembled a month prior to the explosion.
 01/28/2006 03:30:33 PM · #47
I was 2... so I don't really remember.
 01/28/2006 03:48:42 PM · #48
I can remember exactly where I was. It just happened that it was my first day on a new job at a cable company in Ft. Benning, Ga. When I awoke that morning it was around 12°F with Ice and snow on the ground, an oddity for the south.

I was to be at work at 8:00 a.m. but did not arrive until after 9:00 because of the Ice on the roads. I was the first person there, I was scared because I was late on my first day at work but when I seen no others were there I was ok. When everyone arrived I had to ride with the Installer I was replacing and our first job was to get the cable back on, which we did. There was a power supply that had shut down and all we had to do was reset it. Then we went to installing cable.

We had arrived at our first installation address and hooked up the cable. The picture was bad and Dean went out to check a splitter while I stayed in the house with the customer. When He came back in the cable connection looked well and the TV was on the shuttle launch.

I can remember, the lady sitting in here sofa to my left, I was standing next to the sofa and Dean to the right of me as we watched (10-9-8â€Â¦Ã¢€Â¦..3-2-1 main engine and we have lift off). I was only 25 years old and watched the shuttle take off with pride. I remember the famous words (go with throttle up) and within a few second’s the shuttle exploding. I believe it was around 10:38 a.m. EST.

It was like time and all sound stopped except what we were hearing and seeing on TV. We stared at the TV in awe, we could not blink, and then we looked at each other. I will never forget the lady looking at me as a stream of tears began to roll down her face. Dean a large man with excellent skills and education could not find a word to speak as he turned around and walked out of the house and went to the truck. Being my fist install I asked the woman to sign the paper and did not even collect the money. I just said, “ I’m sorry – sorry that was the first pictures we brought into your home. I walk outside and got in the truck where Dean was sitting still, in shock.

I knew the first pictures showed a parachute descending and I was hoping that was the capsule but that video with the parachute never showed again. And horribly it did not safely bring our hero̢۪s home. I believe President Regains speech was a needed one that night and well written and presented at a time we as a country needed it.

-SDW

Message edited by author 2006-01-28 15:50:42.
 01/28/2006 04:09:12 PM · #49
I was in Miami, FL. I was 14 days away from giving birth to my twins and watching it while on bed rest.
 01/28/2006 04:21:31 PM · #50
I was a senior in high school and we watched it from just outside the classroom in Brevard County. Sad to say, I got to watch it live.
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