The Challenger Explosion: 25 Years Later
 

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41314630...science-space/

Do you remember what you were doing 25 years ago when this happened?

I, like many school aged children, watched in excitement to see the teacher in space. We were very young, but we understood exactly what happened when the shuttle exploded. My parents let me stay up late to watch President Reagan's speech. I remember crying with them.

Yep. Sitting the student lounge and watching the launch on TV.

I was only 1 when this happened, but I started hearing about it again when Columbia had its mishap. One of the astronauts (Kalpana Chawla) was a graduate of my alma mater, so there was a lot of shuttle coverage around that time.

I was in class and didn't have a clue until I got to my job at the campus switchboard. One of my co-workers there had been doing her student teaching and they were watching it live with a classroom full of students at the time. She was really shaken up.

Honestly, most of the time I was in college living in the dorms, I felt like I lived in a strange bubble that the outside world rarely touched. We only got one or two TV channels on our 13 inch black & white portable tv in the dorm room so watching the news wasn't high on our list. Besides, we were usually at dinner during the ONE hour of the evening that news was on. When I moved to an apartment, we got cable (OMG! Wonderful! MTV!!!!) and then I paid more attention to the news again.

Challenger year, I was a junior so I did have cable at home and could watch this on the news. I was almost 21... almost.

I wasn't born yet at the time of Challenger, even though one of my fraternity's alums was on the shuttle.

I do have to note, though that it's kinda funny how the response differs between different circles. On geeky/techy websites where the same topic is brought up, the attitude makes it sound much worse than 9/11. Yet, on here, it's like just another event.

I was in the 6th grade- indoor recess. One of the first grade teachers came running in the room to turn on the TV- since our classroom had a computer/tv (remember when computers ran through TV monitors?). I don't think we did much school work the rest of the day, and I remember going home and watching Peter Jennings do almost constant coverage of it for the rest of the day.

I realized today that I am the same age now as Christa McAuliffe was it happened.

I will never forget this day.

I was a 4th grader, and they took us into the library so that we could watch the launch live. We were so excited, and cheered...then we got quiet, and I'm not sure anyone knew what was going on until some kid yelled out. Then everyone started to cry and there was much confusion. They took us out of the room quickly, and word spread like wildfire throughout our elementary school. When I got home, I watched the news but my mom made me turn it off because they kept showing the explosion over and over. I heard on the news that some of the astronauts had children, and that made me cry because I thought something bad would happen to my own parents. I remember that my parents talked it over with me for a few days.

This was the most traumatic event I had seen up to that point in my life. Still makes me sad.

I was in fifth grade, in religion class at the Catholic school I attended at the time. An older student came into the room with a piece of blue paper and handed it to the teacher. The teacher said, "Bad news always comes on blue paper." Then she read the note, and told us that the Challenger had just exploded. There was a TV in the room, so she turned on the news, and we spent the rest of the period watching the news coverage.

I was only three weeks then but I do remember thus made a huge impact on my sister who was 8 at the time, she mentioned it as being the first major news item she remembers since we just got a tv before it happened

I was in college when the disaster occurred. The Carnegie Mellon administration had highlighted the fact that CMU alumna Judith Resnick was one of the astronauts scheduled on the manifest so a lot of students were watching the launch to see one of our fellow Tartans go up in space.

My eldest uncle had worked at NASA prior to it becoming NASA, so I heard about space programs all my life, and frankly, was bored with them. I was running an errand and glanced at Dan Rather on tv with a model rocket and thought, "Oh, yeah, this is the launch with the teacher on it." I didn't find out what had really happened for another half hour.

I was in first grade! I dont remember much coverage of it when it initially happened, but I remember seeing clips of it constantly on the news and remember it was a big deal because the teacher was on board. I also remember hearing somewhere her class was in the audience watching the launch when it exploded.

I was in kindergarten, and we were watching the launch at school. It was a big deal because of the teacher on board the shuttle. This is the first big news story I can remember too.

I remember the day as if it were yesterday. I was in 8th grade and we were all in the gym watching the shuttle launch. We all looked at each other confused thinking there is no way this could have happened. I think that was the last live launch I watched at school.

I was in 7th grade. Because the timing of the launch coincided with when we were changing classes, the teachers were able to go to the library to watch on TV. Since there wasn't room for the students, we were told to go to our next class and that it might be a few minutes before the teachers came.

However, those twenty minutes turned into 20. We weren't sure what was going on, but it never dawned on us that anything tragic had transpired. Our teacher came in crying and with red, swollen eyes. She told the class what happened, and we never did get to our Texas History lesson that day.

I don't really remember watching Reagan. Not sure if I didn't see it, or if I just don't remember.

Wow, 25 years.

I was born about nine months later, but I have a copy of TIME with the Challenger on the cover (I belief it's an "end of the year" issue from 1986) and remember asking my parents about it when I was little. My dad didn't watch it on tv but my mother did and she remembers it being upsetting.

I think what was most difficult about it was that so many school children were watching it live because there was a teacher on board. I don't recall ever watching anything space related on TV as a kid myself. My mom did sit us down in front of the TV every time there was any kind of space launch. Likening it to 9/11 is extreme. This wasn't a terrorist attack and it didn't kill thousands of people. The Pentagon wasn't attacked. We knew there was risk in the space program because of previous problems with Apollo missions.

I was in 7th grade and in Art class when the announcement came over the PA. Honestly, it was not that big of deal, sorry to say. We just went on with our day. Considering how many people from my area worked in defense and space, you might have thought more.

I am so old, I was sitting in the library of my school with my 8th grade students watching the flight of the 1st teacher into space. I told a friend tonight, I cannot believe it has been 25 years. It's like it was yesterday. It was shocking and surreal to see it live in a library filled with perhaps 200 middle school students. A life lesson for all of us to say the least.

We're close to the same age, right? I honestly don't remember watching it live. I remember the Punky episode, and I SORTA remember seeing it on the news, but maybe I was too young to get it.

I was in third grade and we watched the launch on TV. As soon as it exploded and the Mission Control audio of, "...obviously a major malfunction," came over the TV, my teacher turned it off. I don't remember her telling us anything, or that there was any type of announcement at school, I just remember that we all knew something was wrong. I don't remember any of the media coverage, either, possibly because my mom may not have let me and my brother watch it.

I watched every episode of Punky Brewster, and I remember the Candice Cameron milk carton episode, the Just Say No episode, the Brandon gets hit by a car episode and more, but I don't remember a Challenger episode.

ETA: One more thing I remember was seeing on TV the shots of the family/friends area as they watched the shuttle launch and explosion, both the celebration and the horror on their faces when they realized what had happened. Some of that footage is on YouTube and it is still painful to watch.

We used to watch the launches in school. Somehow I didn't hear about this one until I got home that day. My Mom told me as soon as I walked in the front door. I just assumed nobody had seen it that day in my school all these years, until today. I am friends with one of my grade school buddies and she is friends with a bunch of people from my class that were at the same middle school. They were all talking on Facebook about watching it that day in the library, class, etc. I wonder if I had a test that day?

I remember it well because when the Challenger had just launched they had just hit the sonic boom and we all heard it.

I was in the 6th grade at the time and when I was living in CA then, it wasn't too far from JPL.

We were in Mrs. Russell's math class. We weren't watching it on tv in her class, but they were watching it on tv in Mr. Duncan's classroom. Another student came over to the class, because we'd just heard the sonic boom, and said, "the Challenger exploded" and we all looked at Mrs. Russell like, "uh naaa."

I remember going home that night and my Mom was home with my big headed brother (he'd gotten sick at school w/an astham attack) and watching it on t.v.

It ws weird because Dr. McNair had just been to our school talking about the space program a few weeks before.

I just remember feeling sad for all of the astronauts. I just remember feeling bad for them and their families. They kept playing it on the news over and over. I just remember not wanting to keep watching it over and over, but since we only had one tv in the house it was Mom's rules.

I would only watch it for so long. The tragedy I felt I just couldn't keep watching it over and over. Don't remember what happened at school the next day, but dang, 25 years later, I still don't think I could watch the total footage.

I remember this day well. I was 20 years old, a junior in college and had just begun my semester of study abroad in England. I don't recall if my fellow exchange students and I watched the launch live (due to the time difference and all), but it was certainly all over the news that day and the talk of the campus. Unfortunately, some of the British students thought they were being humorous by saying "NASA = Need Another Seven Astronauts." Ugh.