Space Shuttle Challenger

[Guest Sgt. Joe]

I just wanted to remind anyone who may care that on this date Jan 28, 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger was destroyed during launch taking with her seven brave souls.

I grew up in that area of FL and was living there at the time.

I remember that we had gone to work as a normal day and I had sent a painter up a 40 ft ladder to do a small amount of work on the gable of a new apartment building that we were working on. The man came back down and told me that it was too cold to be up there. ME thinking I was something special set out to prove him wrong and went up myself. Once I got up there and the wind started blowing I came back down and apologized to the man and sent the crew home for the day.

Myself and two others decided to go fishing instead. It is as you know never too hot nor ever too cold to go fishing.

We had only been on the river long enough to cast my first line when she took off. Having already seen all the previous shuttle launches it was no big deal to any of us but we did have mission control on the radio.

As soon as it left the pad someone made the comment that the smoke looked different and I agreed. The smoke always looked very white but that day it was a dark gray color. Just seconds later it all became a huge fireball right in front of our eyes,the rumble followed a few seconds later and it really was not much of one given how powerful the explosion had to have been. The color of the smoke did not have anything to do with anything and I was later told that it probably only looked that way because it was warm and the air around it was so cold.

The fireball happened and pieces started falling. We watched as the solid rocket boosters crossed themselves and looked for a moment as if they would hit each other and cause another explosion. The strange thing was that mission control was few seconds behind and they were still talking like everything was OK for a few moments after it had exploded and pieces were falling. We had seen what we thought was the crew cabin falling but still intact and held out hope that it was and that there would be survivors.

Challenger had always been my favorite bird. She had been the work-horse of the fleet up until that time and was leaving out on her 10th mission. It was Challenger that had carried the first woman into space (Ride Sally Ride) and also the first to take two women into space at the same time.

But what I loved about that bird the most was that she was the first shuttle to land back at KSC. After having watched so many leave over the years to see one come back is also something that I will never forget.

For a strange twist in fate and numbers Shuttle Columbia was destroyed on Feb 1 (03) at the end of her 28th mission. All three of our space program disasters have happened during the same calender week in different years.

1-27-67 Apollo 1

1-28-86 Shuttle Challenger

2-01-03 Shuttle Columbia

I can not even begin to list all of the things that our efforts to go into space have given the civilian world. I am also very happy that they are working on the next generation of spacecraft although I do wish they had kept a couple of the Shuttles operational until the new ones are ready. The idea of having to hitch-hike a ride with the Ruskies just dont seem right after all the work our fellow countrymen have done.

I will spend today in remembrance of those heroes. I hope that you too can take a minute to remember them.

[Steelharp]

I was there, working with Tammy Wynette at the time. We were out on our hotel balcony watching the launch...

[MattCary]

I was a Freshman at Oviedo High School.

Watched it live in the sky with Mission Control Broadcast on a Walkman.

I still have the school newspaper with a photo on the front page of our school's flag at half staff and the smoke trail from the launch behind it.

I remember Challenger and her 7 souls every year.

Thanks Joe, and Steel for your first hand accounts, I haven't heard many of those since I moved home from Florida.

[Volzfan]

Thanks Joe! Many event dates escape me these days but those events are still fresh.

[oldogy]

It appears there are a few of us ex central Floridians on here. At the time I was living north of Orlando. I was on top one of the taller buildings in downtown Orlando watching when the shuttle blew. I've seen a few of the shots up close where I could feel the ground shake and from a boat off shore. All of these were awesome. I was also in the auditorium of the same building mentioned above when the word came of Kennedy's assassination. Two major events that I will never forget.

And Steelharp, I went to see Tammy about that time frame when she was in O town. I believe it was at the complex out east of town.

oldogy

Edited January 28, 2012 by oldogy

[mcurrier]

I was sitting in a Bennigan's Restaurant in Virginia Beach. Spent the day sitting there watching it re-play over and over and over again on all of the tv screens.

[Guest NYCrulesU]

I was in Mr. Adam Oseff's 5th grade class at Woodrow Wilson middle school in Elizabeth, NJ. They wheeled in the cart with the tv just for our class to watch the launch. I still remember the sinking feeling I felt in my chest when it exploded.

That same feeling has come and gone several times in life...

-The day my mother passed, with me standing by her side, and I had to close her eyes.

-Turning on the tv just in time to see the S. Tower smoking and the second plane hit the N. Tower.

All are days I'll never forget exactly where I was and what I was doing.

Edited January 28, 2012 by NYCrulesU

[VERO1]

I was working at the airport in Vero Beach about 70 miles south of the Cape. That day had to be one of the coldest days in my memory. I still remember the boosters going out of control and the smoke trails they left. Mission control kept reporting as normal for several minutes after the explosion and then explained a catastrophic failure had occurred. Thanks for the reminder.

[Guest Bang!]

I was half way around the world in the Philippines. My wife woke me up to tell me about it.

[Guest bkelm18]

I was too young to remember it, however I do remember seeing the Columbia disaster on the news. I had just gotten back from MEPS after enlisting (delayed entry program) and I turned on the TV. They were showing live shots as the parts streamed through the atmosphere.

[mikegideon]

I watched it happen on TV. I was in Tupelo

[Guest mustangdave]

I was in the hangar bay of USS New Orleans LPH-11...about 2 weeks into WESPAC 1986...headed to the chow line, when the CO made the announcement about Challenger. My dad was a technician at Cape Kennedy and had been part of Project Gemini when the fire on Apollo ONE happened...my mom still has news clippings from the local newspapers in Titusville and Cocoa Beach, FLA

[MattCary]

I was working at the airport in Vero Beach about 70 miles south of the Cape. That day had to be one of the coldest days in my memory. I still remember the boosters going out of control and the smoke trails they left. Mission control kept reporting as normal for several minutes after the explosion and then explained a catastrophic failure had occurred. Thanks for the reminder.

I'll never forget it Vero. Mission control said: "obviously a major malfunction."

Being freshmen, we said something to the effect of no it just blew up. Having grown up in central Florida schools, we knew so much about the program. We knew immediately it was catastrophic.

We, too, spent the rest of the day watching the coverage on TV.

[Guest Eagle Heart]

I lived in Orlando at the time and we were installing a telephone system at one of the older motels on Daytona beach. There was a vacant lot next door and we had walked outside to watch the launch. Saw it live and in person and it still brings a sad note to my heart....

[RobertNashville]

I was just three weeks into a brand new job...I remember the day very well.

I also remember a couple of years ago seeing the memorial to the Challenger at Arlington National Cemetery in D.C. Two of the astronauts are buried in Arlington; some of the unidentifiable remains are buried beneath the memorial at Arlington. That memorial is one of those things at Arlington that you just "need" to see when you are there.

[Deerbnb]

I was to report to the offices of (at that time) Caroon and Black to perform some services. when I came in the lobby a large group of the staff was standing around the large TV in the lobby to watch the launch. So it was all very surreal standing with a group of strangers in shock when the shuttle exploded. I'll never forget where I was and the feeling of disbelief.

[Guest Sgt. Joe]

I am surprised that so many here were close by in person that day.

One of the things I will never forget that I didnt mention was that the contrails stayed in the sky until well after dark that day, just hanging there like fingers of a hand, it was very eerie. I went outside at midnight and they were still there. I was afraid that they would still be there the next day but they were gone once the sun came back up.

If any of you were around for the first Shuttle launch you may remember that the rumble from that one broke windows as far away as Orlando. They did not on that launch spray the high pressure water into the fire-hole in an effort to save money. I was watching that one from the roof of my house after working an all night shift and it was all I could do to stay on that roof because the ground rumbled so hard. They went ahead and used the water for all the rest of the launches. I recall also that no one bothered to tell ME about the "Roll maneuver" and I almost had a heart attack when it did that for the first time.

I grew up watching all the launches from the the late Gemini shots and I did see all the Apollo shots including Apollo 18 which was the link up with Soyuz and was also the first night shot, it was amazing as the sky lit up like orange daylight for several minutes.

Watching those things blast off, both the big Saturn rockets of Apollo and the Shuttle launches gives one a sense of pride in being American that I have never felt from anything else. To say that I miss it would be an understatement. Friends still down there tell me that the Air Force is still pretty busy sending things into space.

I even arrived in TN with a Challenger license plate on my car that FL issued to help build the Astronauts Memorial at KSC, it was the third or fourth one that I had bought and my son has it on the wall in his bedroom, that is one plate that I will keep forever.

The Memorial BTW is itself really cool. For those who have not seen it, it is a huge piece of black marble or granite (I forget which) that has the names etched on it. It travels 360 degrees so that even on a moonless night it picks up enough light from just the stars to light up all the names that are on it.....Very Cool.

[G27]

I was at school in Lake Mary (suburb of Orlando where I grew up) and we had, rather unusually by this time and in this temperature, stepped outside to watch it after it cleared the trees. Even from there it was obvious when things went bad. Knew a lot of folks who worked KSC - it was a tough time for a while.

I'll never forget it.

[analog_kidd]

I was living and working in Boynton Beach, FL, which is just south of West Palm Beach. Even though we were 200 miles south of the launch, on a clear day we could easily see the rocket glare and the vapor trails. We almost always stepped outside to watch it live, so we knew what a normal launch looked like. I knew immediately that this was not a typical launch. I will never forget the way the vapor trail broke off into a Y shape.

Very sad day in American history.

[Guest FTG-05]

I was a Freshman at Oviedo High School.

Watched it live in the sky with Mission Control Broadcast on a Walkman.

I still have the school newspaper with a photo on the front page of our school's flag at half staff and the smoke trail from the launch behind it.

I remember Challenger and her 7 souls every year.

Thanks Joe, and Steel for your first hand accounts, I haven't heard many of those since I moved home from Florida.

My old school, 1973.

I was in Seattle, I remember them coming over the speakers telling us about the accident and then everyone going to the nearest TV to watch the news and video. A lot of grown-ups openly crying that day.....

In the late '90's I got to go to KSC for a week for work. Three of us got to visit the final resting place for Challenger: An Minuteman test silo. It was filled with muddy water to about 3 from the surface.

[raydog1]

I was a teenager at home alone talking to an old friend on the phone. That broke a major rule about not being on the phone while parental units were away. My mother had been trying to reach me for hours but only got a busy signal. She stormed through the door and yelled, "What were you doing on the phone?" I knew I was toast. Easily a 1-2 week grounding offense. I had no excuse, just patiently waiting for the judge's ruling. Suddenly, the look on her face softened. She knew I was clueless because the tv was off. She also knew I had space shuttle models and posters, visited Huntsville every year, and watched every launch. And, like every child of the 80's, I wanted to be an astronaut.

She just said, "Turn on the tv."

I didn't get grounded that day. After seeing that explosion a hundred times, I wouldn't have cared.

[MattCary]

I was in Central Florida from '77 to '87.

Playing little league at the Y in Orlando in '78 (I think) The Enterprise was flown low over Disney for someone important to see, and it went right over the Baseball field. That was pretty amazing, the shuttle with it's tail-cone on the back of the 747.

I saw every Shuttle launch outside from the first up to Challenger.

That's a fact I wasn't aware of; they buried Challenger's remains in a missile silo at the Cape? I guess it never occurred to me that it would be anywhere but in the hanger where they reassembled it.

It it pretty interesting that so many here saw it live. Go Lions!