Space Shuttle Challenger Crash 25th Anniversary

[moose135]

Today marks the 25th anniversary of the loss of the space shuttle Challenger and the seven astronauts on board. For many, it was a stark reminder that space travel was in no way "routine". I was flying tankers at Grissom AFB at the time. I was with my crew, mission planning for a flight the next day, when our squadron Ops Officer came in and gave us the news. We quickly wrapped up our work and headed home to watch the coverage.

RIP to the brave men and women of Challenger, and all who made the ultimate sacrifice in the exploration of space.

[megatop412]

I was actually at home that day, 8th grade had school but 7th off because of some kind of teacher's conference at the junior high. Watched the coverage until my Mom took me bowling, for some reason it didn't strike her as odd that this national tragedy was unfolding and she wants to go bowling. I said "Ma, the space shuttle just exploded" and she was like "oh, well get your shoes on because the taxi will be here any minute".

It was probably the most surreal 2 games I ever played.

RIP Challenger

[Gerard]

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nati...e_disaste.html

This is the news report from The NY Daily News of that horrific crash that day.

[mirrodie]

Cant believe its been 25 years.

[CX777]

Just saw 25th anniversary clip on CNN. This was one of the most shocking/tragic moment in the nation for sure where everyone remembers where they were. I was at UConn Dean's office (not in trouble) when the news broke. The Dean's secretary started crying and I was in a shock. The Dean shortened my appointment and I walked back in total disbelief to dorm room to watch the news. I believe we (about 30 students) just stayed glued to TV for rest of the day to get more and more updates.

RIP Challenger Crew.

[Speedbagel_001]

I was 15 when it happened and remember being off from school that day. After I heard about it, I too was glued to the TV. As has been said, it was unreal to see such a tragedy unfold right before your eyes. I've thought about it every year, on the 28th, and always found it disturbing that unless the current year was a nice "round" number, it never made the newspapers - or if it did, it merited only a paragraph or two.

But besides that, I've also taken an interest in studying the technical reports and descriptions of the accident (and that of Columbia). Curiosity about the physics involved, I guess. There are many interesting nuggets in there with many contributing factors that led to the orbiter breakup. For instance, according to the telemetry, the main engines went into shut-down mode milliseconds after the "flash". You have to wonder "what-if". What if the boosters merely separated early but cleanly. Would they have been able to make it back. Sadly, we'll never know, but interesting to ponder.

Here's a link to one report:
http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/...ocs/events.txt

[PhilDernerJr]

I was home from school at the age of 5. I was pretty excited to watch a launch live, and wasn't quite understanding of what was happening when it exploded. I had to call my mom in to ask her.

[Derf]

I watched both accidents live on tv. The Challenger I was at school when we were told that we would watch live and then were told that we were not able to get a tv. I was not happy and explained that it is not to difficult to put two classes in one room as I would have stayed home to watch. After some grumbling we watched it and I instantly said "Holy **** it blew up". The teacher tried to explain it is not an big issue and it did not blow up.... My reply to her was "GODSPEED crew of the Challenger" then for the rest of the day I had to listen to the jokes by classmates on how God does not like teachers.

RIP Challenger Crew