Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Another Sad Anniversary - Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster

I was at work in Maumee, Ohio. I remember it and how well Reagan addressed the USA.

At that time, I was renting a writing office in a large office building on Sunset Blvd., in West Hollywood. I had parked my car and was walking to the office building. There was a large electronics store i walked past and as they did at that time, the huge picture windows fronting Sunset were filled with all different television sets, probably a dozen, for sale. They were all on and the Challenger was just getting ready to lift off. I stopped and watched as did several other passersby.

We watched as it lifted off, then rose higher and higher. Then, there was that puff of smoke followed by the explosion. We were all stunned. One guy said, "That must be from a movie." (Hey, it was Hollywood.) I said, "That's no movie."

We watched and every step I took, another tv set was showing the exact same explosion. it was surreal. One could not get away from the horror of the tragedy.

Later I went on to my office but could not concentrate on writing. I went home and watched the news It seemed unreal but it was real.

I remember it well.

L.W.

I was in 10th grade English class. Our "media" teacher was recording it and saw it happen live. He went room to room telling us what happened.

Weird thing is he was kind of nervously laughing about it as he told us. I realize now, he was in a state of shock and disbelief.

I was sitting on front bumper of my Camaro parked in a University of Florida parking lot waiting on a tow truck. Blew the trans to pieces racing the night before and pushed it into the lot. I had just walked across campus from my dorm and remember thinking how damn cold it was. I got to the car, put the hood up, sat on the bumper looking upward hoping I’d get a view of the shuttle launching and saw it come apart. What a terrible day I’ll never forget.

Damn that would have been too close for me, I was up in Palm coast and saw it on tv and then ran up to the top deck to see the smoke.

Dang, getting old. I remember I was in high school. Another tragic moment for NASA, America and mankind in general.

Stepped out of the house seconds after it blew. SRB smoke trails meandering across the sky. Gloomy day at work it was.

I remember it clearly, along with Ronald Reagans speech to help heal a nation.

"As they slipped the surly bonds of earth, to touch the face of God..."

I didn't know anything had happened till the next day.
We were on Winter Warfare Ex in CFB Wainwright AB, out in the field. Came in from the EX the next day on a CANEX run for smokes etc. (CF version of the PX)
Front page of the paper had huge photos. We grabbed every paper and took them out to the troops in the field. Unreal!
Jeff

I'm a young guy, was in junior high and the teacher rolled in a TV to watch the launch. Quietest day in school that I could remember.

I met Christa McAuliff's mother the next year. I worked for a plant nursery during my college break and another guy and I were tasked to plant a memorial tree at her parents' house. One of the biggest honors of my life to have been part of that.

From the Netflix documentary, some believe the shuttle could have landed had the booster not cut it in half. Some believe some of the crew were alive all the way until impact.

I still remember getting to go watch it live on the only tv in our school.

I worked in a busy ER in Webster, TX for a decade that was right next door to the Johnson Space Center. One of the ER docs that I worked with was a NASA astronaut who had flown on the space shuttle. We were friends. His wife was also a NASA astronaut who’d also flown on the space shuttle. I learned a lot from him. And he told me a lot about the Challenger disaster. I met Story Musgrave; I met Gene Kranz (his daughter hired me into that ER); I met Deke Slayton (and took care of him in the ER when he was sick). The NASA astronauts that I knew were/are truly exceptional people. My friend above told me about a book that Michael Collins wrote called ‘Carrying the Fire’ and said it was the best book about the space program (at that time).

I remember leaving my office to catch it on tv at a local furniture store.

Later on a friend found a piece of the Challenger’s tile that had washed up. Pieces were everywhere on the beach he was on. NASA obviously said leave them alone or return them if you found one. I got to hold it…..light as a feather.

I was northbound on U.S. 59 south of Carthage, Texas and listening to a Shreveport, Louisiana radio station. There had been talk for the last couple of days about problems that had been encountered that had delayed the launch a time or two. The radio announcer said something flippantly like "to all of you who had bets that the shuttle launch was not going to happen today, you just lost your bet". A recorded commercial was then played. A few moments later, there was one of those "pregnant" pauses and in a very somber voice he announced "ladies and gentlemen, the space shuttle has exploded." I pulled into a truck stop that used to be just a couple of miles south of Carthage and watched the news coverage on a TV there. A surreal experience.

Someone earlier made a flippant remark about the last words broadcast from the shuttle. In reality, it is my understanding that it was "uh, oh", uttered a quick moment before the explosion. It was reported by a NASA spokesman whom they thought it was, but I cannot remember who. I don't guess it really matters. They all bought it pretty quickly.

I was steam cleaning downhole tools when this happened.

When they were doing the investigation i was watching it from a hospital bed paralyzed from the waist down.

It was something to watch.

I was home on leave for a couple days. I had just graduated AIT at Aberdeen MD, and was fixing to get on a plane in Pittsburgh to fly to Seattle, and Ft Lewis that afternoon.
I remember it was on TV, but I didn’t have time to spare. I guess it was a couple days before I knew what had happened.
7mm

I had just walked into the Petty Officers club in Naples Italy and it was on the TV.

Very quiet in there. Sad day for America.

I agree, but the dignity, grace and compassion with which our Commander in Chief conducted himself in helping to heal a grieving nation was inspiring. With the exception of GHWB, none of our recent presidential idiots have been capable of doing the same.