Challenger: 30 years today

[MoonCat]

I still recall exactly where I was and what I was doing, and exactly what I felt, when I learned of the loss of the shuttle Challenger with all aboard.

[EricKei]

I was in 6th grade. The whole school had been more or less shut down so that multiple classes could squeeze into available rooms to watch it on TV. I was one of the last out of my normal room, and it was eerily quiet as I walked in to the room where the TV was set up. I saw the TV set and saw the smoke. That was when the announcer began talking again, words to the effect of "We've just lost the Challenger..." coming across as the first set of replays began.

You could hear a pin drop in that room. Half an hour later, they had dismissed the entire school early, and we went home for a good cry.

May they all rest in peace.

[KuariKaydrith]

I was 13 years old and in grade 8, and I was living with my mother and brother in a shelter for battered women and their children. News coverage of the Challenger disaster was played on the common room TV for ages and I watched entirely too much of it from under the covers on one of the couches that day. I vaguely recall that they cancelled school that day after the news but at the time I was going through a heck of a lot in my personal life so I don't recall a lot of specific details. I do remember getting quite upset when the horrible jokes started being told by classmates -_-

[mjr]

I was in elementary school. I was nine years old. They had wheeled a TV into the cafeteria, and herded a bunch of us in there. I'd seen a couple of launches on TV before. This one was different. Even at 9, when the ET ruptured into that huge plume of smoke, I knew something wasn't right, though I didn't exactly understand the magnitude of what happened.

There's actually a great NatGeo documentary (I think it was) on the Challenger in the series "Seconds from Disaster". Google it, it's a VERY interesting watch.

[Crossbow]

I was at home getting ready for a skiing trip (school was closed for in-service work). My mom called me downstairs with the comment of "That doesn't look good."

[Teysa]

I was in sixth grade. I didn't see the actual disaster but the kids who did were talking about it in the hallway between classes. Of course they showed it a lot on the news that night.

[Sunshine]

I was seven. I don't remember much about after it other than being sad...don't know if we got school off or not. RIP Challenger crew

[Lady Legira]

I remember watching it on Newsround (children's news program in the UK) they were doing a special on it as I remember. I still remember John Cravens voice as he realised it had gone wrong.

[Jay 2K Winger]

I was 5 years old at the time, but I have no memory whatsoever of the incident.

RIP to all those aboard.

[Victory Sabre]

I believe I was in the 7th grade, and we were told about what happened after the class ended. We were all in shock.

[Kogarashi]

I was only three when it happened, so I have no memories of the incident itself. I do recall getting one of those news leaflets three years later in first grade on the anniversary and discussing it as a class, as much as a bunch of 6-year-olds are able to.

it was eerily quiet as I walked in to the room where the TV was set up. I saw the TV set and saw the smoke. That was when the announcer began talking again, words to the effect of "We've just lost the Challenger..." coming across as the first set of replays began.

This is eerily similar to what I recall of when I saw the news about 9/11 in college.

[Kittish]

I was in, appropriately enough, history class in jr. high at the time. The teacher had brought in a television and we watched it in class. There wasn't a lot of discussion about it, just shocked silence with some quiet whispering here and there.

[Jester]

I was in school but out of class. And yet watched it live.

So, for some reason I wasn't in class and was walking through the halls of my high school. For the life of me, I can't remember the reason, but I know it was valid, and that I wasn't skipping class. I was in 10th grade (my first high school), and stopped in the audio visual room to talk to one of my teachers, Mr. S. Not only did Mr. S have something to do with the AV folks (I didn't, and don't recall the nature of his affiliation), he also happened to be the very unique teacher of the only History of World Peace class I've heard of, and of which I was a student. Mr. S was a very odd fellow, and not the hippie type you might expect from his pioneering class, but he was very smart and sharp as a whip, and didn't take any guff from his students....not easy to do when you're somewhere between 60 & 80 and dealing with a bunch of teenagers.

Anyway, stopped in to talk to Mr. S in the AV classroom, where he shushed me and pointed to the tv, which was broadcasting live the launch. We watched in silence together as the Challenger majestically took off. And then very shortly thereafter, we watched in silent horror as the explosion happened in front of us.

I couldn't tell you the room number, but were I to take you to my first high school, I could walk you right to that room. In my mind can see it and Mr. S's face as clearly as any who saw the Challenger explode that day can see it in their minds. And of course I can see that in my mind clear as day as well.

Years later, the morning of my little sister's wedding, my fiancé and I watched in horror, live on TV, the Columbia breaking up on re-entry as we ate our breakfast in our hotel's restaurant. Or perhaps we were watching the news reports of it after it happened....I'm not sure if that re-entry was broadcast live as the Challenger's launch was. Hard to say. Still, hard to forget that day, being a wedding day and all, and one my sister and her fiancé had picked for the date: as the Europeans and British (which he was) wrote dates, their wedding date was 01-02-03.

[Teefies2]

All you youngsters get offa my lawn!!!

I was at work, going about my normal day dealing with idiots ..... I had finally got the last one off the phone and had put a Do Not Disturb on my phone and door so that I could go back to writing the company newsletter.

My 1/3 secretary (I shared her with two other people) knocked on my door, to which I said "I'm writing!!" She very quietly opened the door and said "I think you should see this". Since I totally trusted her, I followed and was saddened beyond belief at what had happened. It was truly a tragedy of monumental proportions, so much so that it shut down the space program for a number of years.

I'm old and have lived through/seen many horrifying tragedies that should not have happened, but this was one of the worst, sadly topped by 9/11. May they all rest in peace.

[Erinesque]

I was in first grade, in New Hampshire, and I remember that one of the astronauts was supposed to come and speak to us at school. The teacher had the television brought in to the classroom that day, and I don't remember if it was a live feed, while it was happening, or if it had already happened, when we saw it in class. I remember being sad and disappointed that she wouldn't be able to come to talk to us.