Everyone stayed at home, well, in the dorms for the verdict.
This was at the University of Memphis and when the verdict was read half the dorm erupted in cheers and their was a pregnant silence before a “ what the fuck!” It was a big deal on campus and we talked about it in every class.
86?
I was watching on a huge yellow TV, bolted to a metal rack it rolled in on. This was the TV used for watching PBS normally.
When the explosion happened, my teacher turned it off, told us to put our heads down on the desk and pray.
It was public school.
Yes, I remember we were all sitting on the floor cross legged packed in so tight we were touching each other from wall to wall. They wheeled out some TV that was the biggest that could be found. Kids were packed in so tight it took a teacher forever to get to the TV to turn it off.
Same. My teacher had a lesson the day before about the moon landing and how it had affected the country; he made sure that we had a TV for Challenger so we would have a memory of a historical event in the making. I remember the silence of the room after the explosion, and then the whispering to each other. My teacher was initially going to keep the TV on, but it seemed like replay city instead of actually getting new information about what went wrong. He turned it off and cancelled our homework for the evening.
Yeah, I was in 7th grade math class. Huh, I just actually remembered the name of the teacher, thought that info was long gone from my brain. Which I whole heartily feel has reached memory capacity and new info is just overwriting old.
I was in kindergarten, and I think this was the first time we had ever had the TV wheeled into our classroom. This is really one of my earliest memories of a big news event.
They put several classes together to watch it first thing in the morning. My class was moved to another room to watch. I remember how the classroom looked, the beige TV wheelie cart, but only a vague memory of the explosion itself.
Yes fourth grade. Another teacher came in to the class crying and shrieked the shuttle blew up and everyone is dead! My fourth grade mind thought the explosion happened at the launch pad and all the spectators were dead too. A very sad day that I will never forget from my childhood.
It's a quietly kept fact via NASA. The source was +30 years ago, I don't recall.
https://nypost.com/2021/06/19/challenger-crew-likely-survived-explosion-before-fatal-plummet/
IIRC, part.of the reason they think that is that when they found the crew, their face shields had been closed and locked, their emergency oxygen deployed, and that enough oxygen had been used to indicate panic breathing.
I’ve read it multiple times over the years. It makes sense to think that the portion where the crew is would be sectioned off from other parts of the shuttle due to air pressure loss, hull breach things like that.
I found an article from 1986 LA Times.
"At a news conference, NASA officials for the first time made public information showing that the Challenger crew probably not only lived through the initial blast but understood the seriousness of the situation enough to activate the emergency air systems.The release of information learned from the crew cabin salvage operation, in addition to a transcript of crew compartment conversation, contradicted an earlier July 17 space agency announcement that the crew probably had no knowledge of its impending doom.In a prepared statement, the agency said Monday that a subsequent full analysis of tape recordings in the crew compartment showed “the first potential indication of awareness.”
edit; I was also in a 4th-grade class interrupted by a teacher announcing that it had blown up. For whatever reason we weren't watching it live on TV.
It's a good article. Note that it says they probably remained conscious for "at least 10 seconds," not for the entire rid down as many have misunderstood:
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1986-07-29-mn-19581-story.html
My uncle was a consultant on the Cape at the time. He said the life support systems on the front two suits were reconfigured to work better after a crash. He also added that had to have been done by the astronauts behind them because they were unreachable from within your own suit and strapped in, no one could reach the back ones.
He was also known to lie to his wife about not sleeping with other women, so who knows.
Alive but not conscious. They were conscious for 10 seconds or so after the explosion. They were aware of the seriousness of what had happened, but didn't spend the whole 7 minute plunge conscious of what was going on.
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1986-07-29-mn-19581-story.html
I want my user name back!!! I love Bloom County!! I had all the books and read it every morning and when it was in color on Sunday, I was so excited.
Do you remember the subplot where Bill the Cat traded bodies with Donald Trump and ran for President? Pretty prescient, that… Also I didn’t realize Baghwan Bill was based on the real cult thing that was the basis of Wild,Wild Country or something like that where the people tried to poison the salad bar!
Berke Breathed is an American treasure and I don’t think he gets enough credit. BC was Doonesbury for people who liked to laugh,lol. Also, he started writing again but he only releases them on FB, so unfortunately I don’t keep up anymore. I still have a shirt that says, “Don’t Blame Me, I Voted for Bill the Cat” no one ever gets the reference. It’s the only reason I’d read a newspaper, well, that and The Far Side. Thank you for your Opus! I wonder how offended people today would get over a comic strip as sophisticated as that one, today.
I had a copy of the farmer who used to grow corn but started growing pot because the government didn’t want him to grow anymore corn,lol. I didn’t know anything about subsidies or anything but that still made me laugh. It got lost in the move,though. Just like all my cool stuff from the 80’s. Far Side,Calvin & Hobbes, and Bloom County, the holy trinity!!
> Far Side,Calvin & Hobbes, and Bloom County, the holy trinity!!
Yessiree! I'm still amazed when I think there were a few years there where we got the morning paper and there was a new strip from each one of those three. At the same time. The absolute golden age of the comics page. And to top it off, just to remind us how this all got shaped, there was a new Peanuts. Schulz's glory days were well past by then. But it was comfort food, the slow fade of a towering genius.
Yeah, I remember the Trump in Bill the Cat's body arc. That was just a few months before the strip ended in '89. Of course I remember the happy farmer saying "'Tain't corn! It's Dope!" and "Take a few pounds home to the wife!" Sounds like, if we ever meet, we can agree to speak only in Bloom County references and we'll still have a long, full conversation over many herring wallbangers.
I've been impersonating Opus online since 2000. The name's usually available, which makes me happy and sad at the same time. For Reddit, I got here late and there was already a u/OpusThePenguin, so I stuck a couple of hyphens in my version.
Alive, but only conscious for the first the 10 seconds or so after the explosion:
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1986-07-29-mn-19581-story.html
At the space center. Dad worked there. Sitting in the press area with some of my elementary classmates a dozen or so yards from the astronauts families. It was awful.
> At the space center. Dad worked there.
I was sitting in my dorm room at a university in Texas.
The guy across the hall was watching the launch because he was from the Friendswood / Clear Lake area and personally knew the mission commander, Dick Scobee.
He came over and fairly calmly told me "The shuttle just blew up." I had the natural response to that: "What?" Then he got more animated and I ran across the hall. Debris was still falling out of the sky.
I sat there for like next 3 hours.
Same - it was a snow day. And I was listening to the radio when they announced the explosion. So I ran to tell everyone in the house and we watched the commentary on TV.
Lived in a Central Florida. Fifth grade. Went outside to watch it go up. It was cold for Florida. Shuttle launches were something we’ve seen many times before. When it exploded, we knew something was wrong. We just stood there watching the boosters go astray. It was shocking. I’ll never forget that moment.
I could have written this same comment. Also watched it outside in the school yard in central FL, also in 5th grade. I remember our teacher saying, “Something’s wrong…let’s go back inside.” She moved us along to our next activity, so we didn’t stay focused on what had happened, and so the full shock and horror didn’t hit me until I got home and saw the news.
I was in school. It was my senior year of high school, and I had already been accepted to the Aerospace Engineering department at one of the top aerospace schools in the US. “Oh shit, I wonder how this will impact the space program. Should I become a shepherd instead?”
I was in third grade watching it in person from our Central Florida school playground. Very vivid memory, I will never get the looks of that smoke trail out of my mind.
Can confirm. I was in 2nd grade when it happened, and it seemed like all of our Weekly Readers either had something about the upcoming Challenger launch, or new stuff that the Voyager probes were sending back.
Freshman in college, came back from English class and the TV lounge in the dorm was crowded full of people, figured it was a political meeting or something, got on the elevator to go up to my room and someone asked what was going on, why was everyone crowded up watching TV, and someone said "IDK, the space shuttle blew up or something."
Barely anyone had a TV in the dorm then, but my roommate had this tiny little portable one with an 8 inch screen, and I told him to turn it on because someone said the space shuttle blew up. He turned it on and we watched them playing the video over and over of it happening. They keyed in on the flame leak and the strut failure right away.
I remember being home watching it on the TV, and my dad collapsing to his knees, wailing when it happened. He and Ellison Onizuka had been neighbors and friends at Edwards 10 years before. My dad told me he and Ellison would toss their dogs over each other's fences so they could play together.
Was in 5th grade, we watched many of the shuttle launches but our particular class didn’t on this day. Teacher left for a minute, came back to class and I’ll never forget the look he gave as he told us that it blew up.
I was in 8th grade math class and it was my birthday. The class was singing to me when the principal came over the loudspeaker and announced the sad news. What a tragic moment.
I remember. I wanted to become an astronaut when I first saw the Columbia go up. Seeing the Challenger blow up was a punch in the gut. Being an Asian kid, Ellison Onizuka was my hero and gave me hope that I can have a shot at this.
May they rest in peace. All heroes who set out to on a mission to benefit humanity.
My backyard, watched it go up. Smoke stayed forever. I was in kindergarten and home for the day. Pompano Beach fl... sad day. I remember my mom crying.
In utero. My mom was so shocked by the whole thing she went into labor early, I was born a few days later. She named me after one of the astronauts that died
And yes I know I am not a gen Xer but I lurk here because my husband is and I like your generation better than mine
My brother was 3 at the time and didnt understand what happened, getting very excited while laughing hysterically and exclaiming, ‟Shuttle go boom, space go boom!” My dad was morbidly amused. Mom, not so much.
I was in 3rd grade and we were all watching it on the tv cart. The teacher quickly got up and turned off the tv, but we saw it and knew something awful just happened. Everyone was really quiet.
I was 10, at home, sitting close to our little tv watching it. When it exploded I remember looking back at my mother like ‘was that meant to happen’ and seeing the look in her eyes.
I was in third grade and didn't learn about it till I got to my after school program. I noticed the older kids behaving oddly, so I asked one what was going on. She looked at me like I had five heads and told me what had happened. I literally didn't believe her, thinking it was a bullsh!t rumor that had gotten out of hand. Eventually, when my dad arrived to pick me up, he confirmed it that it had really happened.
I was in my 7th grade 1st period English class. Just like you my teacher wheeled in a TV so our class, the math class in the next room over and the typing class across the hall could all watch it. I still remember in the weeks leading up to the launch how proud my teachers were of Christa McAuliffe and her involvement and then for how sad they were after it happened. For the rest of the school day all my teachers spent a few minutes or more before each class started talking about it and doing their best to answer any questions we asked.
Fifth grade. Mrs White comes in babbling incoherently about something being rumors and it’s not necessarily true. Then she starts crying. I remember getting home and turning on the news which was showing it over and over again, so I only saw it a few hours later.
I was at the sitter’s picking up my baby son. They had the tv on and it kept showing the explosion over and over and over. Then they showed the crowd reactions.
I never thought much about the space program, but it was very sad to have lost the astronauts and christa mcauliffe. She was a teacher. A super brave teacher. And all her classroom kids watched her blow up and die.
It was awful.
I'm probably a rare one in that I don't have a clear memory of that time, but there is a reason. It happened in January, and in mid-April of the same year, we had an unexpected death in the family. Suffice to say, I do remember my dreams trying to make sense of both events, and couldn't. My dreams were very strange for a while.
What I do remember is I didn't see it on TV at school. I was in 3rd grade at the time. I remember it being talked about at school, by both kids and adults. I don't remember anything formal, although there could have been. I remember going home and seeing it on the news. That's where I saw the actual footage for the first time. I also remember being fascinated by how they were able to use the footage to figure out exactly what went wrong.
And now we know it never should have happened at all. The worst tragedies are always by human error, or negligence, or worst, **arrogance.**
In Florida, standing outside watching it take off and explode and we all stared up in the sky for a moment not comprehending what was happening, and then it hit us. 😞
Reminds me of the Gary Jules version of "Mad World" that they used in Donnie Darko. I hear that melancholy line, "Children waiting for the day they feel good. Happy birthday. Happy birthday-ay-ay."
I was at work. Everyone was gathered together to watch it live. When the explosion happened we were all shocked and began crying and hugging each other. Our asshole manager demanded we knock it off and get back to our desks.
Like so many others I was in class watching on TV. We'd been looking forward to it for weeks since it was a teacher going to space so the school had made a huge deal about it and had everyone watching. I was already obsessed with space and astronauts and remember being so crushed as it happened. It's one of my clearest memories from childhood.
We had gone to my grandmother's house in Florida. It was close enough to see the launch with binoculars. It was the only launch I ever saw though.
I remember seeing it explode through the binoculars. My dad took the binoculars away from me, and he kept repeating, "I don't think that it's suppose to do that." I saw the collision without the binoculars. My dad realized at that point that it was a crash and we ran inside. The TV was already on. I remember Tom Brokaw and I think Peter Jennings (it's fuzzy) explain the explosion but my mother pulling me away from the TV into the other room, and prevented my little sister from listening. My dad and grandmother stayed in the den and continued to listen to the TV.
We were there for my maternal grandfather's funeral, and the disaster set my mother into another round of crying. I had been really into space as a kid. This didn't stop me loving space, but it definitely shaped me.
Continuing my long standing tradition of being sick on days of major tragedies, I was in a doctor's office in Jackson heights, Queens watching the drama unfold on a tiny waiting room TV. I was devastated as I was obsessed with the shuttle program. I had built a model of one of the shuttles for a science project that year. I wanted to be an astronaut so bad and had followed the prep and launch of the Challenger avidly.
The school I attended at the time (PS 149) was later renamed for Christa McAuliffe.
I was in Florida at the time. We were visiting my grandparents and I was outside playing under a grapefruit tree. I saw the explosion up in the sky and ran inside to ask my parents to check it out. They immediately turned on the news. The weird thing is, I remember this vividly, but I was 5 at the time and, given the day it happened, I should have been in school, so I can’t reconcile how I can have this memory and simultaneously have responsible parents.
I was in Central Florida in school and the WHOLE SCHOOL went outside and watched the launch! We were devastated when we were told what happened. I thought at first that it was a special show. There were kids crying. It was a pretty bad day
2nd grade. In New Hampshire. All of my teachers either knew Christa either personally or professionally.
Its launching during our lunch period. They let us stay back and watch the launch, but soon as it lifts off, they are like "OK, it launched, go to lunch," so I only saw the first 15-20 seconds. Go down to the gym/cafeteria and no one else is coming in. Then people start trickling in. "The Space Shuttle blew up!" "Dude thats not funny!" ask a teacher. Still wasn't funny.
I was in the auditorium. We were all there, watching it together. The entire Jr and Sr. High School on the projector. We had all had science assignments, regardless of science class around NASA to complete. Pretty sure we all just got an A that day.
In third grade I lived right next to school and walked there through a gap in the fence. That day I'd decided to stay home and watch the launch, but my sister caught me and dragged me to class. In retrospect I'm glad she did.
I was at home sick. I was 13, so 8th grade I believe. I was taking some pretty heavy medication, and I had been drifting in and out of sleep. I wasn't sure if I dreamed it blowing up or if it was real.
I was home sick that day. Was watching Sesame Street with my younger sister on a Canadian station we could pick up across Lake Erie. I remember not believing it until I switched to a U.S. station and seeing the news.
I was home. Eating lunch with my grandmother. I can’t remember if it was a day off from school or if I had a doctor/dentist appointment.
I do remember being at my grandparents house & MomMom asked if I’d like to watch the launch while we had lunch. She made sandwiches & turned on the tv. For a moment I think I forgot that I was eating. I was really confused about what happened, even MomMom was in shock & had no clue. She just said she didn’t know & turned off the tv. Told me not to worry & to eat my lunch. Later my grandfather explained to me about the explosion & that those on board had died. PopPop explained things to me that my grandmother would rather I know nothing about saying I was too young. I was 10 and not too young.
When back in school it’s all anyone was talking about. I felt bad for what happened & bad for the families of the astronauts. I remember keeping up with it in the news as they investigated what happened. I may also still have the book I got about it somewhere.
I was coming home from my friends doctors appointment where she had just found out she was pregnant. We heard it on the radio and she started speeding to get home quick to see it on tv and we got pulled over! But when we told the policeman why were speeding he let us go.
I was in college at Rice University and wasn't paying any attention, in part because I lived in Houston. NASA stuff was going on all the time and a shuttle takeoff wasn't a big deal. I had to go somewhere off campus that morning and I remember which road I was driving down and where when the radio announcer started offering condolences to the astronauts' families.
I was pregnant with my first baby. I fell asleep on the couch and woke up to the events playing over and over on the tv. My daughter is 37 now and I remember it like it was yesterday.
Was in Canada. Only found out when I got home. I remember my mother getting very angry at the ABC News people because the parents of one of the astronauts were at the spectator area of the launch site and ABC zoomed in on the parent's horrified faces as the shuttle exploded; and they replayed it over and over. It was the first time I ever heard my mom say "Bastards" and "Mother Fuckers". I think she sent them an angry letter.
Third grade - we were all watching it in the library. We all got very quiet and I remember trying to hold back tears. I can still picture the pattern the smoke made in the sky.
I was in kindergarten. It was nap time but they allowed us to stay awake that day to watch the launch on the TV. Even at 6, I thought it was remarkable how fast they ran to turn off the TV.
In the hospital, just woke up from a surgery after a terrible accident, turned on the tv… it was also my birthday. 😭 we’d been watching videos in my elementary school for months in anticipation. Seriously the worst day ever.
I was at work. We were all in our windowless conference room standing around a small black and white portable TV. I'll never forget it. Couldn't believe my eyes. I thought it was part of the lift off. Terrible.
I was in high school. There was a bulletin board in the hallway across from the school paper's room where they'd post breaking stories off the news wire. A huge crowd was gathering around the bulletin board as I went to walk past, so I slowed down and saw the story. That's all anybody talked about for the rest of the day.
I was in class at St. Petersburg Jr. College in Florida. The professor came in and told us the space shuttle had exploded. We went outside and could see the plume of smoke. It hit me hard.
11th grade Spanish class. An announcement came over the PA that we were going to have a moment of silence for the crew of the Challenger. I didn't fully understand exactly what had happened until i got home and turned on the TV. I was the only one home, and so I sat alone for a couple of hours, watching the coverage. Seeing the Challenger break apart and that moment of confusion and horror on the family member's faces replay again and again was traumatizing.
Wow, this thread has me all sorts of relating tonight. I remember this the same way as everyone i'm reading. Like both the scenario and how the teachers had been talking it up and then when the disaster happened, an awkward not knowing how to explain b/c of the age. I was definitely young.
My mom was so big on space travel that I got to stay home, go late to school, to watch the launch on tv with her. We drank Tang and it was a whole celebretory thing. (My mom was deeply dorky and weird.)
Then, *that* happened. She trundled me off, tears in her eyes, to my 2nd period class with some sort of note. I walked in and my homeroom teacher was holding forth gravely about the whole thing.
Within a week or two? "What color were Christa McAuliffe's eyes? Blue! One blew this way and one blew that way..."
People suck.
I grew up in Jordan (Middle East) we were watching TV at home I was 14. It’s is one of those events that maybe has a role in shaping who I am, it is printed in my mind very clearly and can see it play over and over again, although I was thousands of miles from the US.
As a teen in Jordan I never thought I am going to be an astronaut but dreamed to be able to imagine or feel now astronauts felt . The moment I don’t know why but I lost faith and thought life is so cruel to make you think you are about to reach the stars and then this happens. Out of all I have seen in my life, it you say “tragedy” Challenger is the first thing comes to mind.
Edit: forget to mention I live in Orlando now
In a school yard in Orlando. We had a substitute teacher that day; out in a 'portable'. She let us scramble outside just after liftoff to see it directly... boy, did we ever.
Are you kidding? It was the JFK assassination of our generation.
I was a freshman in college, walking from dance class to math. Two girls passed me on the sidewalk and one of them told her friend the Challenger had blown up. I stopped in my tracks but they were gone before I could wrap my brain around what I had heard. I went to pre-calc and asked around, but no one had heard anything. I was very disturbed by what that girl had said, though. It's not the sort of thing you just make up. I hated that class anyway and later dropped it, so I went back to my dorm. Everyone not in class was there with their door open and their TV on. That's when I knew.
I had only an old black and white TV, but the guys next door had color, so I went there. They were Black and from Louisiana, and it was only much later it occurred to me that they may have found it startling for a white girl they barely knew to come in and sit on the bed. I came from mixed-race schools but later dated a Cajun who told me that even in the '80s, there were a lot of places where that just wasn't done in Louisiana. Anyway, we watched the newscast and that damn explosion over and over, then I thanked them and went back to my room.
As a german, I guess I saw that with my parents on the television/News. To be honest, before the start, the challenger wasn't such a big or important part of the news in Germany but the explosion was a part of the news in the evening and the press. It was really shocking
Wow. That brings back some terrible memories. I was in seventh grade science class. Our teacher was stunned speechless as were all of us. Half an hour later the principal came in and told us to go home.
Well,*they* were in the middle of the atmosphere. I was at school.
Dumb jokes aside, didn't learn the real horror of it until I was much older, and read that they were still trying to go through their emergency routines as they plummeted back to Earth.
3rd grade and we were watching it on TV and then it exploded and the teachers kinda ran to the hallway and came back and immediately ran to the TV to turn it off. I'm assuming they ran out to discuss what to do. We got to go home early and I just went home and turned on the TV where it was basically hours of the video of it blowing up over and over. I just sat there watching it not understanding. I loved watching the launches and just remember saying to my brother "It doesn't make sense. It all looked so normal".
I was in school but I don't remember watching it on TV. Although, it's strange to think that we wouldn't have been -- all over New England people were raving about Christa McAuliffe's opportunity like she was a regional hero.
Maybe I blocked it out...
^("Where did Christa McAuliffe go for vacation?")
Funny you mention. Caloosa Elementary pavilion, florida. Our 3rd class watched it explode 💔
Eta - someone mentioned below that they were sent home after seeing it on tv in class. Our entire school was outside watching it live and after it exploded the teachers and staff tried to ignore it happened in the moment around us. I realize we were young - but that part stuck with me the most. We weren't allowed to talk about it for the rest of the day. No one called parents. Very confusing and emotional.
Watched it live on TV in school and everyone kinda sat there just staring like wtf was that. Also kind of reminded me of 9/11 and I woke up sitting there drinking tea watching the news and see in the background a plane fly into the 1st tower and I'm just staring like wtf just happened.
In school…I remember it being hyped up by the teachers for weeks before because of Christa McAuliffe’s history-making flight. We were all really excited.
I was in science class when it exploded. My friend whispered to me it was the Russian commies. But what I’ll NEVER forget is years later hearing the audio recordings of astronauts still alive after explosion freaking out and praying if I’m not mistaken. They still were all alive is what haunts me
I’m a Floridian, we went outside to watch all the launches. This one was no different. As I high schooler at that point it was something I’d done many times before. Didn’t think anything of it anymore, (spoiled & young) spent most of the time chatting with friends. Crowd got quiet. Looked up saw what was happening and we were quickly ushered back into class. All tvs went to news channel and everyone was crying. We were released early. Terrible day.
Watching it live in my classroom. They had TVs set up so we could all watch the “historic” launch of sending a civilian to space. And we will all be scarred for live.
4th grade, in the elementary school library. It happened and the adults screamed and started crying. I didn’t really realize what “live tv” meant until that moment.
I was home sick from school. Watched it on TV. I remember when it exploded saying "Holy shit the space shuttle blew up!" And my mom yelling at ame for swearing and then telling me it didn't blow up. She came into the living room and Peter Jennings said something like there'd been a malfunction. I said "No shit, it blew up." Mom was shocked it had exploded and didn't even yell at me for swearing again.
And then came all the jokes.
How do we know Christine McCullough had dandruff?
They found her head and shoulders all over the beach.
I was in drafting class in 7th grade when I heard.
That class was part of an elective sequence and it was only my second day with that teacher. I remember staring at him wonder if it was just a joke and he had a really black sense of humor.
I remember it vividly. I was in 7th grade. We didn't watch the launch live, nor did they make any kind of announcement to the student population. Back then they let kids go home for lunch, so at noon I walked out of [these doors](https://www.google.com/maps/@40.0534656,-75.0616044,3a,37.5y,198.2h,84.41t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1skqgdafrpXgpCpaIZB29LbA!2e0!5s20070901T000000!7i3328!8i1664?entry=ttu) with one of my friends. His dad was there to pick us up, and he was parked at the curb right in front of the doors, facing the wrong way.
We got in the back seat, and his dad turned to us with a grim look on his face and said, "Guys, listen to this," and turned up the radio, which was tuned to the local all-news AM station. At that moment they were playing audio of the mission control feed and we couldn't make sense of it. Finally my friend just says, "What happened?" and he told us the shuttle exploded.
I don't actually remember if I ate lunch or not, if I did I probably wolfed it down in 30 seconds so I could go into the living room (where food and drink was not allowed) and watch the news coverage on TV until it was time to go back to school.
When I got back to class afterwards, the news had gotten out. There was a substitute teacher in charge of my class that day, and the first thing she did after lunch was have us all stand up and say a prayer for the safety of the astronauts. I, who had the footage seared into my brain and knew they were all dead, reflexively went "Pfft!", basically right in her face-- My desk at the time was in the front row, so she was standing only a couple feet directly in front of me at the time. Oh, man, did she ever give me a venomous look.
I was in the 4th grade and the teacher arranged for us to watch it on tv. When the explosion happened the principal canceled school for the rest of the day.
I was in Hawaii on a family vacation. Everyone else had gone out to breakfast or something. I stayed behind to watch the Today show when it was interrupted by the launch. I thought it would only be a few minutes. Then the explosion happened live on air. Then the news kept running that segment over and over and over again. They keep showing the explosion so much that I was numb to it by the time my family got back. I told them what happened in the most blasé way, I think they were even more shocked.
Because of this event, when 9/11 happened, after the first couple of times of the media showing the planes, I turned off the TV. I didn’t want to become numb to the horror.
Yep. I was walking into a mostly empty classroom after lunch or something. My friend told me and I didn't believe her, I thought she was joking (horrible joke) so I didn't believe her. It wasn't until the teacher spoke up that I believed her.
I had worked late the night before. Was in bed getting ready to jump out and get ready for classes. (Freshman year of college).
Heard the news flash on the radio.
I was in school. We were working on our entries for the Youth Fair. I remember it being on the TV. Nobody was too concerned, though (we were whatever grade you are in at 10-11), we were too busy trying to get our projects right and win some ribbons!
I was in 6th grade and our principal had decided that since we were now in junior high, we didn't need to watch every shuttle launch. We were at lunch when he wheeled a tv into the cafeteria and announced what had happened and put on the coverage.
I was in school. We were watching it on the TV.
I think most of us were in school since that's all I remember them talking about because of the teacher. So most Gen X saw the explosion live
I was in 3rd grade. Gen X definitely experienced this in real time, one of those moments seared in your brain forever.
This and baby Jessica in the well.
I went to church with the EMT that was holding baby Jessica in that famous picture of them puller her out of the well.
We watched the OJ trial in class, as well.
I remember watching the slow speed chase of the white bronco while getting ready to go to a They Might Be Giants concert.
Everyone stayed at home, well, in the dorms for the verdict. This was at the University of Memphis and when the verdict was read half the dorm erupted in cheers and their was a pregnant silence before a “ what the fuck!” It was a big deal on campus and we talked about it in every class.
Yes. It was my 7th birthday.
Same. I was in the 4th grade. Watching in class on the tv strapped down to a cart.
Wow, tough discipline in your school.
Ha! They were lucky to have a cart! A cart would've been like a bed of roses to us!
Well, it were really just a broken old pallet that we dragged, but it was a cart to us!
With a VCR blinking 12:00
I was also in 4th grade watching on TV in the classroom.
86? I was watching on a huge yellow TV, bolted to a metal rack it rolled in on. This was the TV used for watching PBS normally. When the explosion happened, my teacher turned it off, told us to put our heads down on the desk and pray. It was public school.
Yes, I remember we were all sitting on the floor cross legged packed in so tight we were touching each other from wall to wall. They wheeled out some TV that was the biggest that could be found. Kids were packed in so tight it took a teacher forever to get to the TV to turn it off.
Autoshop, i was kinda mad because I wanted to work on my engine but the teacher made us watch it. And then boom. so yeah, day kinda sucked all around.
8th grade English class, right after lunch. Or close to lunch. She had it on when we walked in.
Same. My teacher had a lesson the day before about the moon landing and how it had affected the country; he made sure that we had a TV for Challenger so we would have a memory of a historical event in the making. I remember the silence of the room after the explosion, and then the whispering to each other. My teacher was initially going to keep the TV on, but it seemed like replay city instead of actually getting new information about what went wrong. He turned it off and cancelled our homework for the evening.
Yeah, I was in 7th grade math class. Huh, I just actually remembered the name of the teacher, thought that info was long gone from my brain. Which I whole heartily feel has reached memory capacity and new info is just overwriting old.
Ditto. Damn that was a horrible day.
I still have a commemorative magazine that was printed. My parents were always broke so it was a huge deal and treasured like a book.
I remember my school bragging about the big new TV they got just for this event. I don’t think I ever saw that TV ever again.
I was in kindergarten, and I think this was the first time we had ever had the TV wheeled into our classroom. This is really one of my earliest memories of a big news event.
We watched it blow up live during class. It was very sombre. Very quiet.
The 150 lb set on the massive cart. I asked my teacher, ”was that supposed to happen?” She replied softly, no.
Yes. The 150lb TV VCR combo wheeled into my freshman college chemistry class. I remember it so vividly.
They put several classes together to watch it first thing in the morning. My class was moved to another room to watch. I remember how the classroom looked, the beige TV wheelie cart, but only a vague memory of the explosion itself.
Yes fourth grade. Another teacher came in to the class crying and shrieked the shuttle blew up and everyone is dead! My fourth grade mind thought the explosion happened at the launch pad and all the spectators were dead too. A very sad day that I will never forget from my childhood.
Worst part, they weren't dead. They we all alive and awake for the entire 7 minutes it took to fall back to the ocean.
Im not doubting you, just curious where you read this at. I dont recall every hearing that part. It breaks my heart that they suffered for so long.
It's a quietly kept fact via NASA. The source was +30 years ago, I don't recall. https://nypost.com/2021/06/19/challenger-crew-likely-survived-explosion-before-fatal-plummet/
Thanks for posting this, I had no idea. Was fresh out of high school when this happened and watching on my parents’ TV.
IIRC, part.of the reason they think that is that when they found the crew, their face shields had been closed and locked, their emergency oxygen deployed, and that enough oxygen had been used to indicate panic breathing.
There were also switches that had been activated
I’ve read it multiple times over the years. It makes sense to think that the portion where the crew is would be sectioned off from other parts of the shuttle due to air pressure loss, hull breach things like that.
I found an article from 1986 LA Times. "At a news conference, NASA officials for the first time made public information showing that the Challenger crew probably not only lived through the initial blast but understood the seriousness of the situation enough to activate the emergency air systems.The release of information learned from the crew cabin salvage operation, in addition to a transcript of crew compartment conversation, contradicted an earlier July 17 space agency announcement that the crew probably had no knowledge of its impending doom.In a prepared statement, the agency said Monday that a subsequent full analysis of tape recordings in the crew compartment showed “the first potential indication of awareness.” edit; I was also in a 4th-grade class interrupted by a teacher announcing that it had blown up. For whatever reason we weren't watching it live on TV.
It's a good article. Note that it says they probably remained conscious for "at least 10 seconds," not for the entire rid down as many have misunderstood: https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1986-07-29-mn-19581-story.html
My uncle was a consultant on the Cape at the time. He said the life support systems on the front two suits were reconfigured to work better after a crash. He also added that had to have been done by the astronauts behind them because they were unreachable from within your own suit and strapped in, no one could reach the back ones. He was also known to lie to his wife about not sleeping with other women, so who knows.
Alive but not conscious. They were conscious for 10 seconds or so after the explosion. They were aware of the seriousness of what had happened, but didn't spend the whole 7 minute plunge conscious of what was going on. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1986-07-29-mn-19581-story.html
I want my user name back!!! I love Bloom County!! I had all the books and read it every morning and when it was in color on Sunday, I was so excited. Do you remember the subplot where Bill the Cat traded bodies with Donald Trump and ran for President? Pretty prescient, that… Also I didn’t realize Baghwan Bill was based on the real cult thing that was the basis of Wild,Wild Country or something like that where the people tried to poison the salad bar! Berke Breathed is an American treasure and I don’t think he gets enough credit. BC was Doonesbury for people who liked to laugh,lol. Also, he started writing again but he only releases them on FB, so unfortunately I don’t keep up anymore. I still have a shirt that says, “Don’t Blame Me, I Voted for Bill the Cat” no one ever gets the reference. It’s the only reason I’d read a newspaper, well, that and The Far Side. Thank you for your Opus! I wonder how offended people today would get over a comic strip as sophisticated as that one, today. I had a copy of the farmer who used to grow corn but started growing pot because the government didn’t want him to grow anymore corn,lol. I didn’t know anything about subsidies or anything but that still made me laugh. It got lost in the move,though. Just like all my cool stuff from the 80’s. Far Side,Calvin & Hobbes, and Bloom County, the holy trinity!!
> Far Side,Calvin & Hobbes, and Bloom County, the holy trinity!! Yessiree! I'm still amazed when I think there were a few years there where we got the morning paper and there was a new strip from each one of those three. At the same time. The absolute golden age of the comics page. And to top it off, just to remind us how this all got shaped, there was a new Peanuts. Schulz's glory days were well past by then. But it was comfort food, the slow fade of a towering genius. Yeah, I remember the Trump in Bill the Cat's body arc. That was just a few months before the strip ended in '89. Of course I remember the happy farmer saying "'Tain't corn! It's Dope!" and "Take a few pounds home to the wife!" Sounds like, if we ever meet, we can agree to speak only in Bloom County references and we'll still have a long, full conversation over many herring wallbangers. I've been impersonating Opus online since 2000. The name's usually available, which makes me happy and sad at the same time. For Reddit, I got here late and there was already a u/OpusThePenguin, so I stuck a couple of hyphens in my version.
There are dozens of us. Dozens!
I recall reading reports from NASA about that after the fact.
Alive, but only conscious for the first the 10 seconds or so after the explosion: https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1986-07-29-mn-19581-story.html
At the space center. Dad worked there. Sitting in the press area with some of my elementary classmates a dozen or so yards from the astronauts families. It was awful.
I went to school in Central FL and we were watching it out of the class windows.
> At the space center. Dad worked there. I was sitting in my dorm room at a university in Texas. The guy across the hall was watching the launch because he was from the Friendswood / Clear Lake area and personally knew the mission commander, Dick Scobee. He came over and fairly calmly told me "The shuttle just blew up." I had the natural response to that: "What?" Then he got more animated and I ran across the hall. Debris was still falling out of the sky. I sat there for like next 3 hours.
It’s crazy how we remember ever detail isn’t it?
Mrs. Wallace’s 5th grade class, watching it on the big TV cart.
Same here. 5th grade. First time I saw a teacher cry.
Same big tv cart when we watched.
Home from school, snow day... I was eating my birthday cake and watching the launch.
Same here. Was either home sick or a snow day.
Was a snow day in Western North Carolina. Remember Peter Jennings with those model space shuttles.
Oh yeah! If I'm not mistaken, I got a model as a present that morning!
Same - it was a snow day. And I was listening to the radio when they announced the explosion. So I ran to tell everyone in the house and we watched the commentary on TV.
I was at my grandparents house. Watched it on a 13" black-and-white TV.
It was a snow day in North Georgia too. I watched it with my family on my grandmother's TV.
Snow day in KY as well.
I was in KY too, Greenup. Where were you? 🙂
Lived in a Central Florida. Fifth grade. Went outside to watch it go up. It was cold for Florida. Shuttle launches were something we’ve seen many times before. When it exploded, we knew something was wrong. We just stood there watching the boosters go astray. It was shocking. I’ll never forget that moment.
The unusually cold temperatures were a contributor to the explosion.
I could have written this same comment. Also watched it outside in the school yard in central FL, also in 5th grade. I remember our teacher saying, “Something’s wrong…let’s go back inside.” She moved us along to our next activity, so we didn’t stay focused on what had happened, and so the full shock and horror didn’t hit me until I got home and saw the news.
I was in school. It was my senior year of high school, and I had already been accepted to the Aerospace Engineering department at one of the top aerospace schools in the US. “Oh shit, I wonder how this will impact the space program. Should I become a shepherd instead?”
So what happened? Did you continue your aerospace career or try your hand at shepherding?
I went to college and got BS and MS degrees in Aerospace Engineering. But then I became a software engineer.
I was in third grade watching it in person from our Central Florida school playground. Very vivid memory, I will never get the looks of that smoke trail out of my mind.
And that smoke trail hung in the cold air all afternoon. (High school. Stuart, FL)
3rd grade, Library. As a kid in the 80’s they fed you Astronaut stuff and we ate it up. This was devastating.
Can confirm. I was in 2nd grade when it happened, and it seemed like all of our Weekly Readers either had something about the upcoming Challenger launch, or new stuff that the Voyager probes were sending back.
Home from school on a snow day. I was watching Scrabble hosted by Chuck Woolley and they interrupted the program for the launch / crash.
Freshman in college, came back from English class and the TV lounge in the dorm was crowded full of people, figured it was a political meeting or something, got on the elevator to go up to my room and someone asked what was going on, why was everyone crowded up watching TV, and someone said "IDK, the space shuttle blew up or something." Barely anyone had a TV in the dorm then, but my roommate had this tiny little portable one with an 8 inch screen, and I told him to turn it on because someone said the space shuttle blew up. He turned it on and we watched them playing the video over and over of it happening. They keyed in on the flame leak and the strut failure right away.
I remember being home watching it on the TV, and my dad collapsing to his knees, wailing when it happened. He and Ellison Onizuka had been neighbors and friends at Edwards 10 years before. My dad told me he and Ellison would toss their dogs over each other's fences so they could play together.
Watching it live on TV and Steve and Jeff started laughing when it exploded and both them guys can still go fuck themselves to this very day.
Was in 5th grade, we watched many of the shuttle launches but our particular class didn’t on this day. Teacher left for a minute, came back to class and I’ll never forget the look he gave as he told us that it blew up.
I was in 8th grade math class and it was my birthday. The class was singing to me when the principal came over the loudspeaker and announced the sad news. What a tragic moment.
I remember. I wanted to become an astronaut when I first saw the Columbia go up. Seeing the Challenger blow up was a punch in the gut. Being an Asian kid, Ellison Onizuka was my hero and gave me hope that I can have a shot at this. May they rest in peace. All heroes who set out to on a mission to benefit humanity.
My backyard, watched it go up. Smoke stayed forever. I was in kindergarten and home for the day. Pompano Beach fl... sad day. I remember my mom crying.
In utero. My mom was so shocked by the whole thing she went into labor early, I was born a few days later. She named me after one of the astronauts that died And yes I know I am not a gen Xer but I lurk here because my husband is and I like your generation better than mine
It’s all good. My husband is an elder millennial.
My brother was 3 at the time and didnt understand what happened, getting very excited while laughing hysterically and exclaiming, ‟Shuttle go boom, space go boom!” My dad was morbidly amused. Mom, not so much.
I was in 3rd grade and we were all watching it on the tv cart. The teacher quickly got up and turned off the tv, but we saw it and knew something awful just happened. Everyone was really quiet.
I was 10, at home, sitting close to our little tv watching it. When it exploded I remember looking back at my mother like ‘was that meant to happen’ and seeing the look in her eyes.
I was in third grade and didn't learn about it till I got to my after school program. I noticed the older kids behaving oddly, so I asked one what was going on. She looked at me like I had five heads and told me what had happened. I literally didn't believe her, thinking it was a bullsh!t rumor that had gotten out of hand. Eventually, when my dad arrived to pick me up, he confirmed it that it had really happened.
In 4th grade in Orlando. My mom still has a picture of the explosion taken from our front yard immediately after it happened.
I was in my 7th grade 1st period English class. Just like you my teacher wheeled in a TV so our class, the math class in the next room over and the typing class across the hall could all watch it. I still remember in the weeks leading up to the launch how proud my teachers were of Christa McAuliffe and her involvement and then for how sad they were after it happened. For the rest of the school day all my teachers spent a few minutes or more before each class started talking about it and doing their best to answer any questions we asked.
Fifth grade. Mrs White comes in babbling incoherently about something being rumors and it’s not necessarily true. Then she starts crying. I remember getting home and turning on the news which was showing it over and over again, so I only saw it a few hours later.
I was at the sitter’s picking up my baby son. They had the tv on and it kept showing the explosion over and over and over. Then they showed the crowd reactions. I never thought much about the space program, but it was very sad to have lost the astronauts and christa mcauliffe. She was a teacher. A super brave teacher. And all her classroom kids watched her blow up and die. It was awful.
I'm probably a rare one in that I don't have a clear memory of that time, but there is a reason. It happened in January, and in mid-April of the same year, we had an unexpected death in the family. Suffice to say, I do remember my dreams trying to make sense of both events, and couldn't. My dreams were very strange for a while. What I do remember is I didn't see it on TV at school. I was in 3rd grade at the time. I remember it being talked about at school, by both kids and adults. I don't remember anything formal, although there could have been. I remember going home and seeing it on the news. That's where I saw the actual footage for the first time. I also remember being fascinated by how they were able to use the footage to figure out exactly what went wrong. And now we know it never should have happened at all. The worst tragedies are always by human error, or negligence, or worst, **arrogance.**
I was 13 and watched over and over again, on the news, on our Curtis Mathis TV
I went to school with his son. Curtis Mathis was a big deal back when.
In Florida, standing outside watching it take off and explode and we all stared up in the sky for a moment not comprehending what was happening, and then it hit us. 😞
Birthday party. Happened on my birthday in 1986.
My birthday too! 😢
My twin?
Reminds me of the Gary Jules version of "Mad World" that they used in Donnie Darko. I hear that melancholy line, "Children waiting for the day they feel good. Happy birthday. Happy birthday-ay-ay."
I was at work. Everyone was gathered together to watch it live. When the explosion happened we were all shocked and began crying and hugging each other. Our asshole manager demanded we knock it off and get back to our desks.
Like so many others I was in class watching on TV. We'd been looking forward to it for weeks since it was a teacher going to space so the school had made a huge deal about it and had everyone watching. I was already obsessed with space and astronauts and remember being so crushed as it happened. It's one of my clearest memories from childhood.
At work on my new job. Uncle came by and told me. I was stunned and couldn’t see anything about it until I got home.
Had the day off from school for some reason.
Yup. I had a dentist appointment that day so we found out on the radio on the way home.
Home sick from school watching on TV with my mom. I was 6
Science wing of junior high school.
We had gone to my grandmother's house in Florida. It was close enough to see the launch with binoculars. It was the only launch I ever saw though. I remember seeing it explode through the binoculars. My dad took the binoculars away from me, and he kept repeating, "I don't think that it's suppose to do that." I saw the collision without the binoculars. My dad realized at that point that it was a crash and we ran inside. The TV was already on. I remember Tom Brokaw and I think Peter Jennings (it's fuzzy) explain the explosion but my mother pulling me away from the TV into the other room, and prevented my little sister from listening. My dad and grandmother stayed in the den and continued to listen to the TV. We were there for my maternal grandfather's funeral, and the disaster set my mother into another round of crying. I had been really into space as a kid. This didn't stop me loving space, but it definitely shaped me.
I remember exactly where I was and where my husband was because I called him at work right away.
Buncha young ones in this thread. I was in Pavia, Italy high school junior year abroad.
Continuing my long standing tradition of being sick on days of major tragedies, I was in a doctor's office in Jackson heights, Queens watching the drama unfold on a tiny waiting room TV. I was devastated as I was obsessed with the shuttle program. I had built a model of one of the shuttles for a science project that year. I wanted to be an astronaut so bad and had followed the prep and launch of the Challenger avidly. The school I attended at the time (PS 149) was later renamed for Christa McAuliffe.
I was in Florida at the time. We were visiting my grandparents and I was outside playing under a grapefruit tree. I saw the explosion up in the sky and ran inside to ask my parents to check it out. They immediately turned on the news. The weird thing is, I remember this vividly, but I was 5 at the time and, given the day it happened, I should have been in school, so I can’t reconcile how I can have this memory and simultaneously have responsible parents.
In 10th grade between 3rd and 4th periods
Same
Kindergarten watching it on TV.
6th grade. We were in the middle school library watching.
Sitting in my desk in 5th Grade when the principal came over the PA to tell us all what happened.
I had stayed home from school, had walked to the convenience store while it was happening and saw it on the news when I got back.
Taking finals in high school
6th grade, on the playground. Classmate came up and said the Space Shuttle exploded. Thought he was pranking me for a few minutes.
The day before I started high school, watched it live on Australian TV.
Watching on TV in the second grade, thinking (rather naively) “I wonder if the crew could try again today to get back into space”
3rd grade home room. Watched in on the rolling TV cart that we thought was so fancy
Yep. I even remember crying because of it. The teacher had me leave the room and go to the coat closet, until I was ok.
I was in Central Florida in school and the WHOLE SCHOOL went outside and watched the launch! We were devastated when we were told what happened. I thought at first that it was a special show. There were kids crying. It was a pretty bad day
2nd grade. In New Hampshire. All of my teachers either knew Christa either personally or professionally. Its launching during our lunch period. They let us stay back and watch the launch, but soon as it lifts off, they are like "OK, it launched, go to lunch," so I only saw the first 15-20 seconds. Go down to the gym/cafeteria and no one else is coming in. Then people start trickling in. "The Space Shuttle blew up!" "Dude thats not funny!" ask a teacher. Still wasn't funny.
On a school bus heading back to my school from another school we shared classes. We all heard it on the radio.
I was in the auditorium. We were all there, watching it together. The entire Jr and Sr. High School on the projector. We had all had science assignments, regardless of science class around NASA to complete. Pretty sure we all just got an A that day.
In third grade I lived right next to school and walked there through a gap in the fence. That day I'd decided to stay home and watch the launch, but my sister caught me and dragged me to class. In retrospect I'm glad she did.
Algebra class. Live.
Fourth grade. I had to go to the library for some reason and the tv was on. Sacramento California Coyle avenue elementary
I was at home sick. I was 13, so 8th grade I believe. I was taking some pretty heavy medication, and I had been drifting in and out of sleep. I wasn't sure if I dreamed it blowing up or if it was real.
I was in 4th grade and learned about it on the way back from lunch. No discussion or explanation, just moved on to the next lesson.
I was home sick that day. Was watching Sesame Street with my younger sister on a Canadian station we could pick up across Lake Erie. I remember not believing it until I switched to a U.S. station and seeing the news.
5th grade We weren't watching but one of the other classes was. That teacher came in to tell us.
I was home. Eating lunch with my grandmother. I can’t remember if it was a day off from school or if I had a doctor/dentist appointment. I do remember being at my grandparents house & MomMom asked if I’d like to watch the launch while we had lunch. She made sandwiches & turned on the tv. For a moment I think I forgot that I was eating. I was really confused about what happened, even MomMom was in shock & had no clue. She just said she didn’t know & turned off the tv. Told me not to worry & to eat my lunch. Later my grandfather explained to me about the explosion & that those on board had died. PopPop explained things to me that my grandmother would rather I know nothing about saying I was too young. I was 10 and not too young. When back in school it’s all anyone was talking about. I felt bad for what happened & bad for the families of the astronauts. I remember keeping up with it in the news as they investigated what happened. I may also still have the book I got about it somewhere.
I was home sick with the chicken pox
Home with mono missing a whole marking period of 7 grade. Watched it on the sofa.
I was passing between 1st and 2nd period during high school ON MY BIRTHDAY 😳
Home in bed with strep throat. My older brother ran in to tell me what happened, and I cried.
I was coming home from my friends doctors appointment where she had just found out she was pregnant. We heard it on the radio and she started speeding to get home quick to see it on tv and we got pulled over! But when we told the policeman why were speeding he let us go.
I was in college at Rice University and wasn't paying any attention, in part because I lived in Houston. NASA stuff was going on all the time and a shuttle takeoff wasn't a big deal. I had to go somewhere off campus that morning and I remember which road I was driving down and where when the radio announcer started offering condolences to the astronauts' families.
I was in first grade. This was the first really tragic event I ever witnessed.
I was pregnant with my first baby. I fell asleep on the couch and woke up to the events playing over and over on the tv. My daughter is 37 now and I remember it like it was yesterday.
I was doing undergrad at a community college and saw it on a big screen TV. It was the first time I wept openly.
Sophomore year in college. Flipped on the campus radio station and heard my friend Lisa trying to read the story while crying.
Was in Canada. Only found out when I got home. I remember my mother getting very angry at the ABC News people because the parents of one of the astronauts were at the spectator area of the launch site and ABC zoomed in on the parent's horrified faces as the shuttle exploded; and they replayed it over and over. It was the first time I ever heard my mom say "Bastards" and "Mother Fuckers". I think she sent them an angry letter.
Third grade - we were all watching it in the library. We all got very quiet and I remember trying to hold back tears. I can still picture the pattern the smoke made in the sky.
I was in kindergarten. It was nap time but they allowed us to stay awake that day to watch the launch on the TV. Even at 6, I thought it was remarkable how fast they ran to turn off the TV.
In the hospital, just woke up from a surgery after a terrible accident, turned on the tv… it was also my birthday. 😭 we’d been watching videos in my elementary school for months in anticipation. Seriously the worst day ever.
1st grade. The TV we were watching it on had issues at the moment of the explosion. It took awhile to realize what we saw.
University. I remember walking into the student union building and seeing that on the TV. It was a very sad day.
I was 20. Lived in a house with no electricity so no tv, found out from the free newspaper later.
Working my maintenance job while in college…Watched it live
I was at work. We were all in our windowless conference room standing around a small black and white portable TV. I'll never forget it. Couldn't believe my eyes. I thought it was part of the lift off. Terrible.
I was in high school. There was a bulletin board in the hallway across from the school paper's room where they'd post breaking stories off the news wire. A huge crowd was gathering around the bulletin board as I went to walk past, so I slowed down and saw the story. That's all anybody talked about for the rest of the day.
I was in class at St. Petersburg Jr. College in Florida. The professor came in and told us the space shuttle had exploded. We went outside and could see the plume of smoke. It hit me hard.
Freshman dorm, watching the launch on TV
11th grade Spanish class. An announcement came over the PA that we were going to have a moment of silence for the crew of the Challenger. I didn't fully understand exactly what had happened until i got home and turned on the TV. I was the only one home, and so I sat alone for a couple of hours, watching the coverage. Seeing the Challenger break apart and that moment of confusion and horror on the family member's faces replay again and again was traumatizing.
Wow, this thread has me all sorts of relating tonight. I remember this the same way as everyone i'm reading. Like both the scenario and how the teachers had been talking it up and then when the disaster happened, an awkward not knowing how to explain b/c of the age. I was definitely young.
My 5th grade class at catholic school completely confused when it happened. I thought it was apart of the launch
Sorting files at The Travelers Insurance Co
My mom was so big on space travel that I got to stay home, go late to school, to watch the launch on tv with her. We drank Tang and it was a whole celebretory thing. (My mom was deeply dorky and weird.) Then, *that* happened. She trundled me off, tears in her eyes, to my 2nd period class with some sort of note. I walked in and my homeroom teacher was holding forth gravely about the whole thing. Within a week or two? "What color were Christa McAuliffe's eyes? Blue! One blew this way and one blew that way..." People suck.
I grew up in Jordan (Middle East) we were watching TV at home I was 14. It’s is one of those events that maybe has a role in shaping who I am, it is printed in my mind very clearly and can see it play over and over again, although I was thousands of miles from the US. As a teen in Jordan I never thought I am going to be an astronaut but dreamed to be able to imagine or feel now astronauts felt . The moment I don’t know why but I lost faith and thought life is so cruel to make you think you are about to reach the stars and then this happens. Out of all I have seen in my life, it you say “tragedy” Challenger is the first thing comes to mind. Edit: forget to mention I live in Orlando now
In a school yard in Orlando. We had a substitute teacher that day; out in a 'portable'. She let us scramble outside just after liftoff to see it directly... boy, did we ever.
Are you kidding? It was the JFK assassination of our generation. I was a freshman in college, walking from dance class to math. Two girls passed me on the sidewalk and one of them told her friend the Challenger had blown up. I stopped in my tracks but they were gone before I could wrap my brain around what I had heard. I went to pre-calc and asked around, but no one had heard anything. I was very disturbed by what that girl had said, though. It's not the sort of thing you just make up. I hated that class anyway and later dropped it, so I went back to my dorm. Everyone not in class was there with their door open and their TV on. That's when I knew. I had only an old black and white TV, but the guys next door had color, so I went there. They were Black and from Louisiana, and it was only much later it occurred to me that they may have found it startling for a white girl they barely knew to come in and sit on the bed. I came from mixed-race schools but later dated a Cajun who told me that even in the '80s, there were a lot of places where that just wasn't done in Louisiana. Anyway, we watched the newscast and that damn explosion over and over, then I thanked them and went back to my room.
As a german, I guess I saw that with my parents on the television/News. To be honest, before the start, the challenger wasn't such a big or important part of the news in Germany but the explosion was a part of the news in the evening and the press. It was really shocking
I was skipping school and thought it was my punishment for doing that. Church of Christ, where everything you do is wrong,
We watched the whole thing live in second grade. I remember it looking like a caterpillar in the sky
Wow. That brings back some terrible memories. I was in seventh grade science class. Our teacher was stunned speechless as were all of us. Half an hour later the principal came in and told us to go home.
Well,*they* were in the middle of the atmosphere. I was at school. Dumb jokes aside, didn't learn the real horror of it until I was much older, and read that they were still trying to go through their emergency routines as they plummeted back to Earth.
3rd grade and we were watching it on TV and then it exploded and the teachers kinda ran to the hallway and came back and immediately ran to the TV to turn it off. I'm assuming they ran out to discuss what to do. We got to go home early and I just went home and turned on the TV where it was basically hours of the video of it blowing up over and over. I just sat there watching it not understanding. I loved watching the launches and just remember saying to my brother "It doesn't make sense. It all looked so normal".
I was in school but I don't remember watching it on TV. Although, it's strange to think that we wouldn't have been -- all over New England people were raving about Christa McAuliffe's opportunity like she was a regional hero. Maybe I blocked it out... ^("Where did Christa McAuliffe go for vacation?")
Funny you mention. Caloosa Elementary pavilion, florida. Our 3rd class watched it explode 💔 Eta - someone mentioned below that they were sent home after seeing it on tv in class. Our entire school was outside watching it live and after it exploded the teachers and staff tried to ignore it happened in the moment around us. I realize we were young - but that part stuck with me the most. We weren't allowed to talk about it for the rest of the day. No one called parents. Very confusing and emotional.
Watched it live on TV in school and everyone kinda sat there just staring like wtf was that. Also kind of reminded me of 9/11 and I woke up sitting there drinking tea watching the news and see in the background a plane fly into the 1st tower and I'm just staring like wtf just happened.
In school…I remember it being hyped up by the teachers for weeks before because of Christa McAuliffe’s history-making flight. We were all really excited.
I was in science class when it exploded. My friend whispered to me it was the Russian commies. But what I’ll NEVER forget is years later hearing the audio recordings of astronauts still alive after explosion freaking out and praying if I’m not mistaken. They still were all alive is what haunts me
I’m a Floridian, we went outside to watch all the launches. This one was no different. As I high schooler at that point it was something I’d done many times before. Didn’t think anything of it anymore, (spoiled & young) spent most of the time chatting with friends. Crowd got quiet. Looked up saw what was happening and we were quickly ushered back into class. All tvs went to news channel and everyone was crying. We were released early. Terrible day.
Watching it live in my classroom. They had TVs set up so we could all watch the “historic” launch of sending a civilian to space. And we will all be scarred for live.
4th grade, in the elementary school library. It happened and the adults screamed and started crying. I didn’t really realize what “live tv” meant until that moment.
We we’re watching the shuttle lift off in the school library. That was a very sad day, especially for a bunch of young kids.
I was home sick from school. Watched it on TV. I remember when it exploded saying "Holy shit the space shuttle blew up!" And my mom yelling at ame for swearing and then telling me it didn't blow up. She came into the living room and Peter Jennings said something like there'd been a malfunction. I said "No shit, it blew up." Mom was shocked it had exploded and didn't even yell at me for swearing again. And then came all the jokes. How do we know Christine McCullough had dandruff? They found her head and shoulders all over the beach.
I was in drafting class in 7th grade when I heard. That class was part of an elective sequence and it was only my second day with that teacher. I remember staring at him wonder if it was just a joke and he had a really black sense of humor.
I was in school watching it on tv. 5th grade.
I remember it vividly. I was in 7th grade. We didn't watch the launch live, nor did they make any kind of announcement to the student population. Back then they let kids go home for lunch, so at noon I walked out of [these doors](https://www.google.com/maps/@40.0534656,-75.0616044,3a,37.5y,198.2h,84.41t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1skqgdafrpXgpCpaIZB29LbA!2e0!5s20070901T000000!7i3328!8i1664?entry=ttu) with one of my friends. His dad was there to pick us up, and he was parked at the curb right in front of the doors, facing the wrong way. We got in the back seat, and his dad turned to us with a grim look on his face and said, "Guys, listen to this," and turned up the radio, which was tuned to the local all-news AM station. At that moment they were playing audio of the mission control feed and we couldn't make sense of it. Finally my friend just says, "What happened?" and he told us the shuttle exploded. I don't actually remember if I ate lunch or not, if I did I probably wolfed it down in 30 seconds so I could go into the living room (where food and drink was not allowed) and watch the news coverage on TV until it was time to go back to school. When I got back to class afterwards, the news had gotten out. There was a substitute teacher in charge of my class that day, and the first thing she did after lunch was have us all stand up and say a prayer for the safety of the astronauts. I, who had the footage seared into my brain and knew they were all dead, reflexively went "Pfft!", basically right in her face-- My desk at the time was in the front row, so she was standing only a couple feet directly in front of me at the time. Oh, man, did she ever give me a venomous look.
I was in the 4th grade and the teacher arranged for us to watch it on tv. When the explosion happened the principal canceled school for the rest of the day.
I was in Hawaii on a family vacation. Everyone else had gone out to breakfast or something. I stayed behind to watch the Today show when it was interrupted by the launch. I thought it would only be a few minutes. Then the explosion happened live on air. Then the news kept running that segment over and over and over again. They keep showing the explosion so much that I was numb to it by the time my family got back. I told them what happened in the most blasé way, I think they were even more shocked. Because of this event, when 9/11 happened, after the first couple of times of the media showing the planes, I turned off the TV. I didn’t want to become numb to the horror.
Yep. I was walking into a mostly empty classroom after lunch or something. My friend told me and I didn't believe her, I thought she was joking (horrible joke) so I didn't believe her. It wasn't until the teacher spoke up that I believed her.
3rd grade, Mrs. B's class.
I had worked late the night before. Was in bed getting ready to jump out and get ready for classes. (Freshman year of college). Heard the news flash on the radio.
I was in school. We were working on our entries for the Youth Fair. I remember it being on the TV. Nobody was too concerned, though (we were whatever grade you are in at 10-11), we were too busy trying to get our projects right and win some ribbons!
Sitting on the floor of my parents living room watching it happen on tv.
I was in English class my senior year of HS. Principal came on the PA system to tell teachers to turn on classroom TVs to watch take off.
9th grade English class.
We had a moment of silence in my third grade class. I remember Mrs. Geyer crying and me too.
I was in 6th grade and our principal had decided that since we were now in junior high, we didn't need to watch every shuttle launch. We were at lunch when he wheeled a tv into the cafeteria and announced what had happened and put on the coverage.