Where were you on this day in '86

[cooper9411]

I believe it had a tremendous impact on all of us!

[TROJANII]

On my way to work Security at Ramstein AB Germany, someone in the dorm said the shuttle blew up. "Yeah, right!"

[maradamx3]

I was in middle school and remember the entire school going outside and having a moment of silence. Very somber!

Just FYI, Challenger did not "explode"! There was no explosion. There was a massive burning of liquid hydrogen and oxygen, but no explosion. The orbiter tore apart due to severe aerodynamic forces. It was also mentioned that Columbia exploded. No! Aerodynamic loads tore her up as well.

Tommy

[the330thbg]

I was in middle school and remember the entire school going outside and having a moment of silence. Very somber!

Just FYI, Challenger did not "explode"! There was no explosion. There was a massive burning of liquid hydrogen and oxygen, but no explosion. The orbiter tore apart due to severe aerodynamic forces. It was also mentioned that Columbia exploded. No! Aerodynamic loads tore her up as well.

Tommy

yah.., massive aerodynamic forces from the EXPLOSION wripped Challenger to shreads!

[maradamx3]

I was in middle school and remember the entire school going outside and having a moment of silence. Very somber!

Just FYI, Challenger did not "explode"! There was no explosion. There was a massive burning of liquid hydrogen and oxygen, but no explosion. The orbiter tore apart due to severe aerodynamic forces. It was also mentioned that Columbia exploded. No! Aerodynamic loads tore her up as well.

Tommy

yah.., massive aerodynamic forces from the EXPLOSION wripped Challenger to shreads!

You should try listening to some of your own advice. Didn't you say a little research goes a looooong way in the Lexington thread? Read the Report of the Presidential Commision on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident.

[bombadier29]

I remember the shuttle blowing up in 1986. I was on a mission trip to vanuatu and didn't hear about it for a few days. I remember the day John Kennedy was shot even better. They say each generation will have their own event. If you coun't 9/11 I guess I have lived through several of those defining moments.

[Davo87]

Sophomore year of art school, sitting in a design class and another student bursts into the class and yells "The Shuttle Blew Up!" We all look at each other with that "No way, he's kidding" look. As soon as class ended, I raced home and spent hours watching the news replay the same video over and over. Very, very sad day indeed.

[aeroeng]

Senior year at Parks Air College. Set up TV's in the student center for everyone to watch the updates. Very sad day. My thermodynamics teacher later did a week long presentation on the theories of what went wrong.

aeroeng

Ps. There are a lot of youngsters on this board which is very nice to see.

[wendovertom]

I was in High School. We were all just kind of drop jawed watching it on TV in my english class. One smart aleck piped off, "well, they are toast". I never saw a teacher hit a student except for that day when my english teacher whapped the kid upside the head!

Tom P.

[p51]

I felt terrible a week after the disaster. I found a cartoon I did from when they were still trying to pick the teacher to go into space. One of the teachers at my school (a gawky computer teacher who wouldn’t be a believable character on “The Big Bang Theory”) put his name in, and right afterward I drew a cartoon of a shuttle lifting off with the caption underneath saying this was his flight. From within the orbiter he says, “Hey, what does this button do?” just as the whole thing explodes exactly as it looked in real life much later. I’d forgotten I had drawn that and felt like an utter tool for doing so. I didn’t just throw it away, I burned it. I was always drawing irreverent cartoons, something I now get paid to do from time to time. It sure wasn’t funny then, though. It’s odd how I had totally forgotten that until today.

[markcia]

Was at the campus bar at lunch watching the launch on the TVs hung from the ceiling. Was sitting next to my other engineering buddies and the noisy bar went deadly quiet.