Remembering the Challenger - 19 Years

[silverleaf]

http://www.cnn.com/resources/video.almanac/1986/challenger/challenger.lg.mov

The 25th mission in the Space Shuttle program, flown by the Challenger, ended tragically with the loss of its seven crew members and destruction of the vehicle when it exploded shortly after launch.

Back row from left to right: Ellison Onizuka, mission specialist; Christa McAuliffe, payload specialist; Gregory Jarvis, payload specialist; and Judith Resnik, mission specialist.

Front row from left to right: Michael Smith, pilot; Francis Scobee, commander; and Ronald McNair, mission specialist.

[John W]

January 27, 1967
January 28, 1986
February 1, 2003

[John W]

"I just had cable TV installed..."

Wasn't CNN the only "network" covering launches live anymore at that time?

[MOgirl]

Hello,

It is weird how certain events are so important that each and every one of us remember exactly where we were and what we were feeling. Such a shared experience. Others that I remember with the same intensity are Reagan being shot (I was in Jr. High)and Waco, burning to the ground (I was home sick from work).

On a brighter note, I truly hope that the Iraq elections will fall into the "I remember where I was and what I was feeling" due to the success of it and the bravery of the Iraq people and our wonderful military.

Also, I CAN NOT believe that it has been 19 years. In ways, it feels like yesterday.

Glad to be here, MOgirl

[Rennes Templar]

Hopefully most of them reincarnated quickly and are studying to go back into space.

[bootless]

Could you add me to the list, please? Thanks!

[Luv2FrazzleDems]

I can't believe it's been 19 years. I remember I stayed home sick from school that day. My Dad was working for Ford Aerospace (now Lockheed Martin) and he would bring home embroidered patches for each space shuttle mission. I had an entire collection and would we would watch the launches together. I woke up late that day because I was sick with the flu & it was all over the news. It was so shocking & I remember being saddened as I looked at the patch and thought how brave they are to take on space missions.

[Mr. Silverback]

It happened on my 15th birthday. Not that I needed that to remember.

[hoagy62]

I was on CQ duty at HHT 3/5 Cav, Ft. Lewis, WA. I was passing by an officer's office and a radio was on...said something about "lost contact with the Shuttle". It had that 'grave' sound, the tone of voice you hear in live disaster events.

I went into the day room. Almost all the junior officers were there, watching TV. They replayed the whole tragic thing. When the replay reached the point where the Shuttle exploded, one of the officers wondered if I was going to faint, because he mentioned I was "white as a sheet".

After a few minutes, the 1st Sgt. came in, wondering where the Hell I was. He didn't know, but soon found out. It was a sad time on watch that night.

19 years? Hard to believe it's been that long.

[silverleaf]

Not vintage Peggy Noonan- vintage Gillespie Magee, author of "High Flight"

High Flight
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long delirious, burning blue,
I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew -
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high untresspassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand and touched the face of God.

Pilot Officer Gillespie Magee
No 412 squadron, RCAF
Killed 11 December 1941

[silverleaf]

http://www.31alumni.com/31challenger1986.mpg

Ironic that John Denver's beautiful tune and words would be used for this tribute, and that John Denver himself (seen at the Air and Space Museum in a brief clip in this tribute) would later crash violently into the water and die.

[queenkathy]

Yes that's right. I had forgotten that. Ironic

[theworkersarefew]

I was actually only 4 years old when this occured. I am actually a Ronald E. McNair Scholar. The McNair Scholars program is a part of the TRIO programs, federally funded programs for first generation, low-income students in college. The McNair scholars program is actually for undergrads who plan on earning a Ph.D. It is a far Left leaning socialist program that does nothing but promote anti-Christian, anti-American research, philosophies and scholarly works. It is just another program that takes money from hard working Americans to give to poor and minority students to indoctrinate them with socialist and human secularist agendas that undermines the Christian heritage and free market system that has made our nation so great. Just another socialist program that uses poor and minority students as pawns for their social and political agenda. What a way to blaspheme the name and honor of a Great American hero that was Ronald E. McNair. We need to abolish the U.S. Dept. of Education, all social federally funded programs such as TRIO, and return Jesus Christ and our real Christian heritage and principles back into our education system and our nation. That would be a pretty American thing to do. Something that Ronald E. McNair would be proud of!

[DallasMike]

Yes, I do. I had worked a long week and decided to sleep in but the sonic boom of the breakup woke me up a few minutes after 8:00. My parents called me a about 10 minutes later with the news -- they had heard the boom, too, and dad had seen the trail in the sky when he went out to get the paper. Mom was crying when she called me. I'll never forget the day.

[DallasMike]

Dang, wrong space shuttle tragedy. I was at work at my first job out of college when the Challenger blew up. We were all stunned.

[Hurricane Andrew]

I was in High School. They made an announcement over the PA, and we had a moment of silent prayer. (It was a Catholic school)

[Riley]

Marine Barracks Beruit

There's a house in California that has a lot of newspaper-backed plaster patches in the sheetrock from that day.

[raccoonradio]

>>January 27, 1967
January 28, 1986
February 1, 2003

Yes, thank you (couldn't remember year of the last one for sure). It is odd that all three tragedies occurred during the "same week" but of them, the cold weather associated with this time of year may have only caused one (the
Challenger).

Christa McAuliffe was from Concord, NH, IIRC, and there's
a planetarium in that city named in her honor.

[Towed_Jumper]

I was home in bed sick with a terrible head cold that day. My wife brought our little extra TV into our bedroom so I could pass the time. She turned it on and the Challanger was just getting ready to lift off. We watched together and saw the explosion. We just sat there stunned. It was a sad day for a nation.

[Rev DMV]

I was on my way to work, an dth eannoucer jumped and and said the, "The Space Shuttle just blew up." It was shocking. We I got to work someone had set up a a tv in the warehouse and we watched the replay over and over and all the coverage for a couple of hours and then got back to work.

One thing I remember clearly was at some point someone or somthing parachuted into the water off the Cape. I recall Dan Rather making a comment about not knowing what that was. Never did hear anything about it later, or to this day. Alawys wondered what that was about.

[LibertyRocks]

I stayed home sick from school that day. I was very excited because I was getting to see the launch live... I remember the adrenaline kicking in (I was a hyper kid) and then when it exploded I just kind of sat there with my mouth open...it was a complete shock. I remember just sitting there stunned quite unable to feel anything - my mom was crying for the both of us.

RIP Challenger crew, and God Bless their families.