Sigh....28 years ago today.....

[Are_grits_groceries]

@BeschlossDC:
Onizuka, Smith, McAuliffe, Scobee, Jarvis, Resnik, McNair--Space Shuttle Challenger, 28 years ago this morning: #NASA


I am still stunned and probably always will be.

[onehandle]

1. I was home with a bad cold that day.

Watching CNN with horror.

[Are_grits_groceries]

3. I was talking to another teacher when somebody told us.

We stood there in stunned silence for a while.
Then we went to find a teevee and have another terrible image seared in our memories.

[Spacemom]

10. I was home sick

Laying on the couch watching the coverage. The images replayed over and over in my dreams while I ran a high fever.

Tragic and heartbreaking.

[LuvNewcastle]

2. I was in high school when that happened and I remember that it wasn't only

sad, it was also a serious letdown. It seemed like a big step backward for NASA, and I don't think the space program has been the same since.

[LWolf]

4. The news was delivered to the classroom by our principal

in person, one classroom at a time. There were no computers, no emails; he walked in, bent over and whispered in my ear at the table where I was working with a small group of students, and I had to breathe and keep going.

In the 21st century, we get those visits to tell us about school massacres.

[Stargazer09]

5. I was watching at home

Just days before I left for basic training, I was watching the shuttle launch with my mom. My life goal at the time was to use my military educational benefits to get my engineering degree, then go to work for NASA.

When the accident happened, I was heartbroken. Not just for the astronauts and their families, but for myself, too. As a teenager, I just couldn't imagine how NASA could possibly come back from that sort of disaster.

For those interested, iTunes carries an ABC television episode (ABC News: The Day It Happened, Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster) that features their news coverage that day.

Seeing their smiling faces always makes me so sad. They didn't have to die that day.

[deutsey]

6. I was in college and had just returned to my dorm room from class

when my roommate told what had happened. So tragic. And what got me at the time were all the tasteless "jokes" that people were telling about the disaster.

[LiberalEsto]

7. I was in a supermarket with my 2 year old daughter

There was a TV on in the front of the store to watch the space launch.

It was so awful

[snooper2]

8. I was in 5th grade watching it live in a small classroom

was messed up- we didn't really understand right away what was going on but knew it was bad-

[Le Taz Hot]

9. I was still in college and had watched the

take-off, turned off the TV and went to class. After class was over I went to the cafeteria to have some coffee, sat down at a friend's table and he asked, "Did you hear what happened to the shuttle? It blew up!" At first I didn't believe him.

Twenty-eight years ago. And Pete Seeger dying. I'm feeling old.

[Festivito]

11. I can't believe they would send it up after that freak Florida freeze the night before.

I was involved in testing O-rings after freezing. O-rings fail with much less force after freezing.

Somebody stopped the lab people and engineers from stopping the launch that day.

[Boom Sound 416]

12. ...

They slipped the surly bonds of earth to touch the face of God.

[liberalhistorian]

13. Oh, how well I remember that!

I was in college and had just come into the common lounge area of my dorm after a class and before lunch. Normally at that time of day there was hardly anyone there, let alone anyone watching the teevee, since it was prime class, meal and activity time. But it seemed like more than half of the dorm was standing and sitting transfixed in front of it, most, like me, carrying books or backpacks. I got closer and heard the words "unknown if any survivors at this time" from the teevee, with an accompanying picture of the shuttle crew, and I knew right then something bad had happened with the shuttle launch that morning.

I had been vaguely aware that the launch was happening because I was at Kent State, which was very close to Akron, OH, where Judith Resnick was from, and the media had been having a field day over it for the past several days. Her parents and many family lived in Akron and had even been interviewed for the local papers. Her services were held the next week at a synagogue in Akron. It was open to the public and several of us considered going, then thought better of it since thousands were expected to try to be there. All the rest of that day and weekend, we all forgot about classes, activities, anything else, as we sat before our tvs, radios, etc., either in our own rooms or in the common lounge areas of our dorms or the student center in the middle of campus.

How well I remember the utter shock, horror, disbelief and tremendous sadness. Plus, my parents were both teachers so we had paid extra attention to the launch because of Christa McCauliffe, and it was especially difficult to hear about her, as both of my parents knew teachers who had applied to the program. I think it's interesting that Steve McCaulifffe married another teacher awhile back.