The Challenger Explosion: 25 Years Later

[LatinaAlumna]

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.

[aephi alum]

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.

[Tulip86]

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

[honeychile]

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.

[ThetaPrincess24]

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.