Challenger Disaster - 20 years ago today

[Shawnski]

January 28th, 1986.

After spending almost a month in the far reaches of Alberta's North on the oil rigs, I was finally driving out to Edmonton with another rig worker. We chatted about many things as one does on such a long trip. One early topic was the pending launch of Challenger. To this day, the words I uttered still haunt me in ways. "They (NASA) are putting them up so often, at some point, they are going to have a major problem."

Not an hour later... the radio shattered our conversation with the news that Challenger had exploded 73 seconds after liftoff.

Today marks the 20th Anniversary of that tragic event. Many on these boards will have no memories of it, yet those longer in the tooth will undoubtedly remember exactly where they were when it happened or when they first heard about it.

Ronald Reagan was to give his State of the Union address later that day. Obviously, that never happened. But later, one of his most memorable lines was made when he addressed not only his nation, but the world.

"We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them this morning as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and slipped the surly bonds of earth to touch the face of God."

As I sit here writing this, the memories and emotions of those events flood back upon me. I wanted to share my experience for those that are too young to remember, and those that might have their own memories to share.

Several stories commemorate this event. I encourage you to read them all.

From the BBC, which has video of the tragedy, as well as Reagan's address. Link




From aljazeera.... Link



From Swissinfo, including an interview with a former astronaut... Link

From the Seattle Times... Link

And there are obviously many more.

Today, remember those fallen in order to advance the human race. They were admirable in life, and legendary in death.

[habernac]

watched that launch live in my Physics class in high school. The teacher was crying his eyes out, couldn't believe what had happened. Saw the graves of some of the astronauts in Arlington National Cemetery when I was there a few years ago. There were also the fresh graves of the Columbia astronauts there as well.

[Flame On]

I remember watching it and not realizing that it had exploded fatily. I thought it looked like a bit of an abnormal launch (to my young eyes) but just thought the split was a stage of the launch. Although the true nature soon became apparant.

[Displaced Flames fan]

We were watching the launch in my 9th grade social studies class. Our teacher lost it. He had applied to do what Krista McAuliffe did.

[MarchHare]

I was a kindergarten student and was completely obsessed with the space program (my childhood dream was to become an astronaut). I didn't watch it live (was at school), but as soon as I got home my mother sat me down and we watched the news coverage for several hours. It's one of my earlier childhood memories that is still very vivid to this day.

Shawnski: that line from Reagan's speech actually comes from the poem High Flight, which was written by an American pilot serving with the Canadian air force in WWII. I had the distinct priviledge of reciting the poem myself while flying my first solo flight about 10 years ago.

[Shawnski]

Interesting note, March. Thank you.

Considering this was the first school teacher to go into space, MANY youngsters were tuned in live for it. That must have been an extremely traumatic experiece for them all. Thus the inclusion within Reagan's remarks that day.

[HOZ]

I remember watching it. The guy who does the count down and then launch count never realised for a couple seconds what had happened. He kept talking as if it was a regular thing. "Challenger go with throttle up....(reply)Challenger going with throttle up......boom....Challenger T+73 altitude........"

A sad day.

[Kjesse]

I was sitting in Grade 8 science class. Everyone was working solo on some assignment.

A science teacher from the class next door walks in, while we were all busy, and said quietly to the science teacher who happened to be standing close enough to me to hear, "The shuttle just blew up".

Big news. One of those moments you never forget. I find it odd I still see that moment so clearly, so many years past.

Truly a tragedy of modern history, its impact set NASA back many years, and still has an impact today.

[JiriHrdina]

My memory of this is a strange one. I was at camp when the tragedy occurs. Was about 10 years old I guess. 4 days after it we arrive back home with no clue about it blowing up. My mom asked me how everyone reacted when they told us about the shuttle at camp. Once she realized I had no idea what she was talking about she told me. A very strange way to find out.

[ken0042]

I was in Grade 10, and it was semester break. I was taking a bus to go see my girlfriend at the time, and when I got to her house the first thing she said was that the Shuttle had exploded. I still recall the conversation word for word:

Her- The Shuttle just blew up.
Me- No it didn't.
Her- Yes it did.
Me- No, the Shuttle doesn't _just_ blow up.
Her- Yes it did. It went Booooom! (and she make hand gestures to indicate an explosion.
Me- I'm sure you must have heard it wrong.
Her- No, none of my soaps are on, the just keep showing it over and over.

That was the moment I realized the gravity of the situation; that her soaps had been pre-empted. At that point the Shuttle launches were pretty standard, so if they were televised it was only for about 5 minutes.

I also recalling hearing people say that the Shuttle Explosion would be the "I remember where I was" event for those of us not around for the Kennedy assasination. Then September 11 happened.

Now, something I heard afterwards and haven't heard since; was a report that 3 of the astronauts survived the initial explosion, and that one of them even survived impact with the ocean for a short period of time. The explanation of it was that one of them was attempting to communicate an SOS, but was using an internal recorder rather than a radio transmitter.

The other thing I recall from that day; apparently 2 of the chase plane pilots climbed as high as they could and then ditched their planes in an attempt to free fall through the debris in hopes of catching a survivor, and then parachuting down. They were showing the debris falling when all of a sudden you could see 2 parachutes coming down. Everybody on the TV was rejoicing that some of the astronauts had survived, but it turned out it wasn't them.

As somebody who also had always wanted to be an astronaut, it was an especially sad day for me.

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by ken0042

Now, something I heard afterwards and haven't heard since; was a report that 3 of the astronauts survived the initial explosion, and that one of them even survived impact with the ocean for a short period of time. The explanation of it was that one of them was attempting to communicate an SOS, but was using an internal recorder rather than a radio transmitter.

The other thing I recall from that day; apparently 2 of the chase plane pilots climbed as high as they could and then ditched their planes in an attempt to free fall through the debris in hopes of catching a survivor, and then parachuting down. They were showing the debris falling when all of a sudden you could see 2 parachutes coming down. Everybody on the TV was rejoicing that some of the astronauts had survived, but it turned out it wasn't them.

As somebody who also had always wanted to be an astronaut, it was an especially sad day for me.

No, that bit of morbid and tragic information is most likely faked and created by the tabloids (first published in Weekly World News). Fortunately, the crew likely lost conscious due to lost pressure.

http://web.archive.org/web/200106061...~radams/chall/
Is pretty comprehensive on the issue

http://web.archive.org/web/200402160...ocs/kerwin.txt
Is the conclusion of the investigation into the module which hit the ocean after 2 minutes of terminal velocity freefall form 65,000 feet with a force of 200 Gs on impact making any survival impossible.

[Cowperson]

On that morning, I was in a newsroom looking at a screen when a simple two line phrase came up which I recall saying:

"The space shuttle Challenger has exploded over Florida. Details to follow."

That's it.

In the next hour, the rest of the sentences piled up into a coherent story.

Cowperson

[ken0042]

Thanks H&L. I heard it 3rd hand, and then never heard anything else. Those links were informative.

[pope04]

Wow, 20 years ago today. I was in my first-year journalism class at SAIT that day and we flipped on the tv to watch. The stunned silence was deafening that morning when it became apparent that the launch malfunctioned.

[calgaryred]

I never saw it live, I was sick and stayed home from school, I was flipping stations and I saw a news reporter being all serious and the headline was Challenger accident. My mom and I were glued the whole day just watching the coverage.