Where were you on this day in '86

[m charters]

At CWH museum sorting parts, someone told us and we went looking for a tv or radio.

[mazdaP5]

I was ten, and saw the news report on the tv dispaly wall at the store. I didn't really get it back then, not like with Columbia. Kinda glad I didn't.

[Russ Blow]

We had a decent snow the day before which is pretty rare here. I had been watching the countdown but had to go outside and shove out my old IH Scout before work. The idea was to run inside right at launch. Well I missed by a few minutes and ran inside just in time to see the booster rockets heading off in different directions. It took a few minutes to comprehend what I was seeing.

That was a long sad day at work.

[carlisle1926]

I was in the 7th grade in one of those "special" schools. We were studied aeronautics that year and we had just visited the Johnson Space Center a few days before where we had all been climbing around in the giant mock up shuttle at NASA. Our teacher had wheeled in a huge tv so that we could watch the launch. We were so excited to watch the real thing go up. Obviously we were all horrified. Even at that age my class room all seemed to get what those astronauts had just gone through when we watched the shuttle explode.
I will never forget the second shuttle disaster years later. The morning it exploded over Texas I was getting calls from my neighbors in Midlothian ,TX chewing me out for firing my civil war cannon so early in morning. I had had the nasty habit of blasting off the old 6 pounder just to irritate them in the past. They didn't realize that I had moved to Houston a few days prior. Large pieces of it landed in several of my relative's yards in East Texas. Sadly, it was also the day we realized that my Grandmother was suffering from dementia. She called me to tell me one of the astronauts was in her back yard having coffee with her waiting on NASA to pick him up.

[p51]

A couple of moths ago I read Mike Mullane's excellent book, "Riding Rockets" where he talked about knowing Judy Resnick very well. He described the horror that those in the lower compartment must have felt on the way down after the orbiter came apart. With electrical and O2 lines severed, those in the lower crew compartment rode the thing all the way in total darkness, probably with no idea what had actually happened at any point. He also says that several switches in the cockpit were found manipulated in ways that wouldn't have happened from the impact with the water. Someone up there was trying to fly it, probably right to the moment of impact with the Atlantic Ocean.
He also described mechanically what happened. I'd always thought venting from the SRBs burned a hole into the main tank and caused it to blow up. But apparently, it burned through the lower supports for the SRB on that side, it broke free and that tore the entire stack apart.

[cooper9411]

I was in second grade. My teacher had brought a TV into the classroom so we could watch the launch. I remember there was a lot of talk about that launch regarding Christa McAuliffe who was to be the "first teacher in space." Everyone in class was of course stunned by the outcome.

Second grade, holy s%$t,

[cco23i]

I was stationed at Williams AFB, AZ, and I had just gotten up ( I worked swing shift) and was on my way to the latrine and saw it as I walked past the day room.

Scott

[Kyleb]

He also described mechanically what happened. I'd always thought venting from the SRBs burned a hole into the main tank and caused it to blow up. But apparently, it burned through the lower supports for the SRB on that side, it broke free and that tore the entire stack apart.

Exactly what happened. The SRB rotated into the tank after the rear supports failed.

[wingman1]

i was a freshman i high-school. i picked that day to play hooky from school and watch the coverage at home. everything and i mean everything was going to be about the shuttle at school, and the schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe. i fugured i could see all that just fine at home and not had to deal with the schoolyard drama. go fugure.

[Steve T]

In the second year of a journalism program at Sheridan College in Oakville, Ontario. We had a TV, with cable, on a cart in the newsroom...another student suddenly came tearing into the room and barked out "turn on the TV, the shuttle blew up..." We did, it had, and yes, it swiftly became our Kennedy moment...until 9/11, at least...

The Challenger tragedy actually elicited from me a short poem a few days later. Somewhere I've probably still got a copy of it.

S.

[Paul Krumrei]

Mr Peterson's 9th Grade Science class, we were all watching it on T.V.

I was HUGE into the shuttle since 5th grade, as I wanted to fly it when I got older.

During the flight I noticed the little fire on the tank and remember telling my buddy next to me, "that is not supposed to be there what is that?" and the "Go Throttle Up" and boom she blew up, the whole class room gasped. It was terrible, and then to find out they survived that and hit the ocean at the speed they did. Sad very sad day. Our school made a memorial for it.

[billtate]

I was out flying a drug interdiction patrol near Bimini when our crew was diverted RTB because ATC was clearing the air space around the Cape.

[JohnCFord]

10th grade English class.

~J~

[Cindy]

I was a Jr in High School. I was standing in the library at school watching the launch. The TVs were on in all the classrooms to watch. There was a Mass immediately after it happened - everyone, including the priest was in tears. It was just such a shock to see it happen. There are times, even now, that it seems surreal.

[Airlift48]

I wasn an 8th grader at Sayreville Jr. High School in NJ.

When the explosion happened, we were in Mr. Donelon's Band room 2nd Period. We knew little about it. When I got home, I watched the news for hours just watching and watching.....it had a tremendous impact on me.