01/28/1986

[patchs]

Freshman at my local Juco, my HS pals and I are sitting in the cafeteria, and one of my other friends walks in, the joker of the group.
He says he was watching CNN before coming in and that the shuttle blew up.
We all thought he was joking, then a minute later, another guy said the same thing.
Then we knew it was true.
We walked up to the TV in the student lounge and it was on CBS, and once you saw the tape, you knew there was no hope.

 

[andyouare?]

We’re the same age Mizzou and I remember several things vividly:

-We lived in the Tampa, FL area, and if you looked out to the East you could see a trail of white smoke going from the horizon to the sky -- it was the trail of the shuttle. I’m serious. Maybe some other Floridians could verify. It was spooky and weird.

-There were a lot of people walking around at school saying it was the Russians that shot it down. I believe that same year, the Russians had shot down a Korean airliner.

 

[cougargirl]

Fourth grade, and our science class was all excited about watching TV instead of sitting in class. We were in the library watching the liftoff and ascent and then everything suddenly exploded on television. I think it took about a 10 seconds for everything to register with anyone, because we all just sat with blank expressions on our faces, looking at each other as if to ask, "What happened?" before the teacher came over and immediately turned off the television.

 

[NDub]

I was three; I have no recollection, obviously.

I watched the entire NASA video with audio last night. Christ.

 

[2muchcoffeeman]

-We lived in the Tampa, FL area, and if you looked out to the East you could see a trail of white smoke going from the horizon to the sky -- it was the trail of the shuttle. I’m serious. Maybe some other Floridians could verify. It was spooky and weird.

I was a freshman in college at the local mall for lunch at the deli, standing in front of the TV/electronics store watching the launch (I watch every manned space shot somehow --- I'm a space junkie). When I saw the explosion I ran outside, as did a bunch of my buddies. I will never forget seeing that smoke trail in the sky with my own eyes. You just knew immediately when you saw it. Terrible, terrible day.

 

[D-3 Fan]

I was in fourth grade. That day was surreal due to numerous situations: Challenger, the anniversary of my dad coming to Iowa to attend college, the special election in town fill a state senate seat vacated by the death of popular local pol, and the debate in the statehouse over passing the new seat belt law. To be honest, I wasn't a science freak and I didn't pay much attention to potential history-making liftoff, because I was too much into the senate election. The state senator died on New Year's Day, which was my birthday, and the election was set for that Tuesday, Jan. 28th.

My old man every year made a big deal about him arriving in Iowa to go to Northern Iowa. It was the first time in his life that he left his home state of Texas on his own.

I was in my homeroom teacher's classroom for 4th Period for reading class. We didn't see her leave the classroom for a few moments, since we were reading our books silently. She returned five minutes later and in a calm manner, she announced that Challenger blew up after liftoff. I was so much into the book, I didn't hear her say it. I only heard the gasp in the room and looked around and asked what happened?

I thought someone tried to shoot Reagan again, which was 5 years earlier. At recess, I was still oblivious to what happened so I asked my pal. All he said was "The space shuttle blew up. Man that is a bummer." Determined to know exactly what happened, I raced home after school and flipped the t.v. on to NBC and Brokaw. I waited with baited breath to see what happened. I finally saw it and I was stunned. To me, there should have been no way in hell the space shuttle could have something go wrong and explode.

It just wasn't possible for it to happen, not on that historical day. It became official to me when Reagan spoke in a prime-time speech, describing what took place and that there were no survivors. It casted a pall on everything that day. The late senator's son won the special election to complete his dad's term, a week later, the legislature passed the seat belt law, and I started to learn more about science and space from that day on.

I didn't know about O-rings. That day I did. I didn't know where New Hampshire was. That day I learned where it was at and where Christa McAuffile was from. I didn't know NASA had a previous tragedy with their shuttles or rockets. That day I did. I learned a great deal about the importance we put in space travel and exploring new territories outside of the moon that day, Tuesday, January 28, 1986.

It's ironic that this thread was created. Yesterday, I moved into my new apartment and my dad somewhere (parents are divorced) was privately thinking about the 25th anniversary of him arriving in a snowstorm in Iowa in 1972 to start college. That is surreal and sobering.

 

[shecky]

I was a senior in high school, at a local college doing research for my senior thesis. First time I had ever seen/heard TVs in a library. It was Framingham State, Christa McAuliffe's alma mater.

When I got to the library, the place was just crazy with pride. You can imagine what it was like when the explosion happened.

 

[Diego Marquez]

I was in high school and we had one of those annoying half-days. You know, you had to go to school, then you got in line and left the building for the day. We didn't know about it when we left school. My buddies and I were playing pinball at the corner store when it came on the TV at the counter. One of my buds watches and says something stupid about fireworks. We simply stopped playing, plopped down, and watched.

 

[BYH]

This hit pretty hard, because one of the astronauts went to the same high school as I did, several years earlier. We had many of the same teachers. An old math teacher, one of the biggest, burliest guys, was interviewed on one of the TV stations. He bawled during it. I remember that almost as much as the explosion, itself.

We learned about the explosion right at the end of science class. My next class was music, taught by a woman who was really into the space program. She'd been talking for days about how excited she was to see a teacher in space. When we got to class, she could barely talk thru the tears. She stammered out something about how she'd applied for the position and ran out of the room bawling.

We had some snow that day too. After school, I remember going across the street to shovel our elderly neighbor's driveway and staring skyward, wondering if I could see remnants of the Challenger.

 

[Angola!]

I was four and a half. I never really learned much about this incident except that older kids I knew were really sad because of the school teacher on board. Interesting stuff.

 

[Hed bust]

I was in college, still three years from my first newspaper job.
Watched the coverage with two roomates in our living room.
Kept thinking, at first, that there was a chance that someone somehow might, with a parachute, turn up as a survivor.
Wishful thinking and soon quelled as we continued to watch the news.