25 Years ago today

[Slartibartfast]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-12306318

 

The Challenger shuttle...

[+Dave]

I remember it well. We were stationed at Hanscom AFB, MA and I was sitting in my 7th grade class when the teacher turned on the TV. I have never forgot it.

[+JediMaster]

Here in FL we didn't have TVs in the classroom except the ones on the cart with the VCR attached. All we got was a message from the principal over the intercom and then we had to wait hours until we got home to see what happened on TV. The Miami Herald put out a special section of the paper dealing solely with it (it was as big as the sports section). I had that paper for years, but I think it was tossed about 10 years ago. The entire front was dominated by a picture of the explosion. Of course, it took quite awhile for them to figure out what happened. That report was before they even realized about the O ring link.

 

I was living here when Columbia didn't come back and it was like reliving the past.

[Silverbolt]

i obviously wasn't born when challenge exploded in the sky, but i do remember well columbia , i was just arriving from a restaurant with the family when i turned on the TV to the sunday show...the showman stoped to give the tragic news of the re-entry an i just tunned on cnn to see what was happening, i couldn't understand a s**t since i didn't speak english very well that time.

[+daddyairplanes]

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.'

John Gillespie Magee, Jr./Ronald Reagan

 

sums it up perfectly i think

[+FastCargo]

Here in FL we didn't have TVs in the classroom except the ones on the cart with the VCR attached. All we got was a message from the principal over the intercom and then we had to wait hours until we got home to see what happened on TV.

 

JM,

 

We found out the exact same way, I still remember the look of shock on our English teacher's face at the moment of the announcement.

 

FC

[Nesher]

I wasn't born yet at that time (about a month and a few days later)...

but I did see about it as I'm sure most people during the years

and it's always sad to remember..

 

 

<S>

[ezlead]

I just happened to be watching the launch on TV.

I was stunned.

I kept watching for 'chutes. Finally the announcer said that they didn't have any after the first shuttle. (No way to get out fast)

You could see the flame from the booster rocket burning into the main fuel tank on the long range camera.

I'll never forget the massive explosion,then the booster rockets flying off by themselves.

They were all true EXPLORERS.

[+Typhoid]

Heading out on the NEACP (E-4B) on an exercise mission with the Launch Correlation Unit up listening to Range Control.

 

We all heard the call "non-nominal" and it slowly sank in what they meant.

 

I'll forget that feeling.

 

Some gentlemen showed up later that evening when we were back on the ground and on alert - and took all of our tapes.

[ONETINSOLDIER]

I was working at Battle Mountain High School and had just finished the first half of a split shift at around 8:30 in the morning. I headed home and turned on the tv to wath the launch and just as the screen warmed up and became clear,,,,BOOM!.

I stood there in shock for a minute or so. Normally, Im a stickler when t comes to flag ettiquite and would only lower it to half staff under three events (death of the president, vice president or speaker of the house). I made a field decision and immediatly drove back to work and slowly lowered the flag.

[FalconC45]

I was going to Earth Science class in Colorado and my teacher told the class what happened. I watched the news when I came home from school. My heart jumped in my throat when I saw the footage of the accident. Several years later my folks & I went to DC for a vacation and we visited Arigiton. We saw a memorial of the Challenger and my mind remembered the footage of that teacher waving at the reporters smiling real big, my heart jumped in my throat again.

 

Falcon

Edited January 30, 2011 by FalconC45

[+HrntFixr]

I was walking into the "E" club for lunch at NAS Cecil Field, FL when I saw everybody looking at the sky. I turned and saw it a minute after it happened.

 

I was in shock and disbelief at what I was seeing.