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Post by yivit on Jan 27, 2016 15:42:03 GMT
Fast forward to Columbia - we had just gotten back from a cruise. The space shuttle was taking off right down the street and we wanted to stay and watch, but had to get back on the road to get home and get our kids. We drove for about half an hour and pulled over on the side of the highway (with hundreds of other drivers) and watched the liftoff. We didn't see it until it got pretty high since we were so far way, but watched until it was mostly out of sight. When we got home later that afternoon we learned that it had exploded. All of us in the car who had watched were stunned. As Americans I'm sure we were all affected, but we felt so much more connection I guess because we'd kind of been there maybe? I don't know. Both bad days. The Columbia exploded on reentry and not lift-off. Lift-off was January 16, 2003 and reentry, when the disaster occurred was February 1, 2003. So, the anniversary of that is coming up, too. Today is the anniversary of the Apollo 1 fire, too (next year will be 50 years). This week is a very somber one in the history of manned spaceflight. As for where was I - I was at work at NASA/JSC (but in an offsite contractor building), working on some code conversion for the DAP (digital auto pilot) - I was converting the HAL/S code the Shuttle computer used to Pascal so we could run it on our Macs. One of my coworkers was monitoring the launch on his new Watchman that he got for Christmas when he yelled about the explosion/breakup. We all ran to his cubicle to see WTF was happening, then we headed to the little cafe on the 2nd floor of our building because they had a regular TV. I remember that after that all happened, we got bigscreen TVs in both of our atrium areas with both a cable feed and a feed from across the street (JSC onsite). Once we started flying again, everyone stopped working and watched (and held our collective breaths) until orbit was achieved.
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Post by knit.pea on Jan 27, 2016 15:42:38 GMT
I was at work, and what replays in my mind was the look on Christa's mother's face from the viewing area. Haunting.
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Post by bc2ca on Jan 27, 2016 15:52:24 GMT
I would have said I watched it live on TV. On the west coast it was shown on the morning news and I wonder if the CBC was broadcasting it live in Canada?
We did have CNN too, but I didn't watch that regularly. The launch had so much coverage maybe we were watching CNN? Maybe I saw a tape delay?
All I know was the feeling of shock & horror as it sunk in what had happened.
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Post by lisacharlotte on Jan 27, 2016 16:05:28 GMT
I was stationed in England. No TVs at work so we must have received a phone call.
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Post by kristi on Jan 27, 2016 16:09:54 GMT
I was in elementary school & all of our classes watched it in our classrooms on tv.
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Post by jesq on Jan 27, 2016 16:12:00 GMT
I was in college. I remember watching on the tv in my apartment after returning from class.
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Post by cmhs on Jan 27, 2016 16:15:28 GMT
I was in graduate school, in a meeting of gamma theta upsilon. (International Geographical Honor Society). It was just 3 days before my Dh and I went on our first date. Someone came into the meeting to announce it and we turned on the TV to watch.
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Post by malibou on Jan 27, 2016 16:18:47 GMT
I was in the Army at this time stationed in Germany. I remember a bunch of us huddled around our barracks scrappy little TV.
J
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Post by genny on Jan 27, 2016 16:21:49 GMT
Fast forward to Columbia - we had just gotten back from a cruise. The space shuttle was taking off right down the street and we wanted to stay and watch, but had to get back on the road to get home and get our kids. We drove for about half an hour and pulled over on the side of the highway (with hundreds of other drivers) and watched the liftoff. We didn't see it until it got pretty high since we were so far way, but watched until it was mostly out of sight. When we got home later that afternoon we learned that it had exploded. All of us in the car who had watched were stunned. As Americans I'm sure we were all affected, but we felt so much more connection I guess because we'd kind of been there maybe? I don't know. Both bad days. The Columbia exploded on reentry and not lift-off. Lift-off was January 16, 2003 and reentry, when the disaster occurred was February 1, 2003. So, the anniversary of that is coming up, too. Thanks for the correction - now that you bring it up I *do* remember that it didn't all happen the same day, and all of us who had been together were calling each other to see if we'd heard the news.
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uksue
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 2,506
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Jun 25, 2014 22:33:20 GMT
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Post by uksue on Jan 27, 2016 16:23:56 GMT
I had just moved into our first flat with my first husband. I was watching the early evening news whilst waiting for something to cook in the oven and my ex was on the phone to his mum- I just remember shouting out to him to look at the screen and he dropped the phone to watch. I was so shocked- I think we all suffered with a certain complaincency back then ( certainly in the UK where we didn't have a space programme so were always one-step removed.) I remember watching the first moon landings when I was very young with my dad as I was a terrible sleeper ( still am) and would watch programmes with him,including one of the pods coming back and landing in the sea. I will never forget four things: the challenger disaster, the Lockerbie disaster, 9/11 and 7/7 here in the UK. I can remember everything about those first moments, including smells.
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Post by papercrafteradvocate on Jan 27, 2016 18:02:24 GMT
I'll never forget---I was in the store looking at buying a TV--can you imagine seeing that on 50 TV's all at once!?!!! Everyone was clustered around just watching, it was so surreal and we thought it was a movie that it couldn't be real !
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Post by Zee on Jan 27, 2016 18:10:26 GMT
I saw it live. I was home sick from school, 8th grade. I wasn't paying that much attention to the t.v. and didn't realize at first what had happened.
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Rainbow
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Where salt is in the air and sand is at my feet...
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Jun 26, 2014 5:57:41 GMT
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Post by Rainbow on Jan 27, 2016 21:10:39 GMT
Fast forward to Columbia - we had just gotten back from a cruise. The space shuttle was taking off right down the street and we wanted to stay and watch, but had to get back on the road to get home and get our kids. We drove for about half an hour and pulled over on the side of the highway (with hundreds of other drivers) and watched the liftoff. We didn't see it until it got pretty high since we were so far way, but watched until it was mostly out of sight. When we got home later that afternoon we learned that it had exploded. All of us in the car who had watched were stunned. As Americans I'm sure we were all affected, but we felt so much more connection I guess because we'd kind of been there maybe? I don't know. Both bad days. The Columbia exploded on reentry and not lift-off. Lift-off was January 16, 2003 and reentry, when the disaster occurred was February 1, 2003. So, the anniversary of that is coming up, too. I remember that one too. So sad that the families we all seated outside and waiting for their loved ones to return only to be loaded on to buses and taken away to hear the news. IIRC the news kept showing a streak across the sky, which was the remains after burning up upon reentry, and one of the helmets was found in a field or something. ![:(](//storage.proboards.com/5645536/images/mYSUyHtG9Jrcmm_ydVcK.jpg)
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Deleted
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Jun 16, 2024 5:28:36 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Jan 27, 2016 21:12:30 GMT
I was at work, working night shift. We were watching it in an empty patient room. It was horrible and I was immediately in tears!
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Post by Minty118 on Jan 27, 2016 21:25:08 GMT
I was in 6th grade, taking a social studies test. Our principal went from classroom to classroom telling all the teachers. I had a choir concert that night, and watched the coverage on the nightly news while I ironed my dress. It was the first big news "happening" that I remember in detail.
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Post by myboysnme on Jan 27, 2016 21:26:06 GMT
I was working in a hospital on an inpatient mental health unit. The patients had the TV on in the day room and I popped in to watch the launch. I was just standing in the doorway of the day room watching. It was unbelievable. I still have no words.
When I was very little, probably around 1960, my mom had me and my brother watch a rocket launch and she told us it was really something to see. After the Challenger I never really wanted to watch a launch again.
Columbia - even more horrifying because they have footage of them just doing their thing right up to the last second.
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naby64
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Post by naby64 on Jan 27, 2016 21:39:37 GMT
I had just gotten married and was living in Tampa, FL. That day I was working at JCPenneys. We knew when the launch was scheduled and had been looking out the windows facing east. We saw the trail going straight up and then split. Didn't really know why or what happened. We found out just a few minutes after that. I went on break and called my DH who was working downtown. He had seen the trail and they were looking for TVs at the bank he worked at to start watching.
On a happier note, we were still living in FL when the first launch after the Challenger happened. We headed over the night before to the coast, just up from the Cape to catch it live.
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Post by mymindseyedpea on Jan 27, 2016 22:30:08 GMT
When it happened I wasn't aware. I was only 3 though. But I didn't hear about it till I was in my late 20's. My boyfriend remembers watching it though.
We have a building in our area that's dedicated to the teacher and it has kids experience a mission to Mars. It's really cool. One station they are in the spaceship and the other station they are in the control center. I'm sure they have those other places than her in Northern California, but dd went with her class on a field trip once in 4th grade and loved it.
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Post by jenis40 on Jan 27, 2016 23:37:13 GMT
It must have been televised over regular network tv because I watched it in my teacher's living room. (I went to a small rural school that had an apartment for the teacher in the basement.) I was in the 7th grade and I remember the shock. Our teacher hustled us back up to the classroom quickly. ETA our small town didn't have cable so I'm pretty sure it was on regular tv (i.e. antenna). Was this in a one room school, in 1989? I've read there were several here in the thumb of MI up through the eighties and there are still a handful left. I find the idea fascinating.
i Montana. It was actually a three room school (K-8). There was a lower room (K-2), middle room (3-5) and upper room (6-8). At various times it has shrunk down to 2 rooms but is currently back to 3. My mom just retired from teaching there. Fun fact: my first husband also taught there and we lived in the apartment our first year of marriage.
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Post by marysue63 on Jan 28, 2016 0:11:45 GMT
I was student teaching a class of 5th graders with one of the teacher finalists from our state. Because he was a finalist the news media showed up and did an interview in our classroom.
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Post by katlady on Jan 28, 2016 0:15:52 GMT
I was at a restaurant with my dad having breakfast. They had a TV on, but no sound, and I remember saying to my dad that I think the space shuttle blew up. His back was to the TV so he couldn't see.
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Post by alexa11 on Jan 28, 2016 0:16:59 GMT
I was sitting at home watching it all unfold on TV. My youngest DD had just been born on the 20th and she was still in hospital because she was only a 28 week baby. Little did we know that was just the beginning of her problems, but she is strong, healthy beautiful woman today. I will never forget the Challenger anniversary because of her.
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suzastampin
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Jun 28, 2014 14:32:59 GMT
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Post by suzastampin on Jan 28, 2016 0:35:52 GMT
I was standing in the kitchen watching it. It brought back memories of seeing Apollo 1 burst into flames on the launch pad. Still get goosebumps when I see it on news footage.
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Post by stampinbetsy on Jan 28, 2016 0:50:11 GMT
I was a freshman in high school, and my school seemed to wait a bit to announce what happened. I don't remember anyone crying, but we weren't watching it on tv.
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Post by workingclassdog on Jan 28, 2016 1:03:44 GMT
I was a senior in high school.. it was in-between classes when I heard about it. I really don't remember if I got to a TV to see it or just us talking about it. I remember my reaction though.. just disbelief.
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Post by jumperhop on Jan 28, 2016 1:04:13 GMT
I was 10 years old. We had the day off school for professional day and I was at the church setting up for an activity. I wanted to be an astronaut so bad. I was devastated. Jen
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casii
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Jun 29, 2014 14:40:44 GMT
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Post by casii on Jan 28, 2016 1:27:46 GMT
I was in high school and the librarian had pushed all the tvs up to the hallway wall so students could watch as we were dismissed for lunch. I think we were all stunned and didn't know what to think. I still have a paper saved with the headline story.
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Post by PolarGreen12 on Jan 28, 2016 1:29:57 GMT
The drawing done by Dave Simpson that appeared in the Tulsa Tribune. This is my Grammas original. I need to get it framed. ![](http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d30/ClearGibberish/Mobile%20Uploads/image_zps2p5oadbr.jpeg)
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johnnysmom
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Post by johnnysmom on Jan 28, 2016 1:40:21 GMT
Mrs Fredrick's 4th grade class. Iirc we actually weren't in class at the launch, we must have watched the pre-launch stuff then went to lunch and heard about it afterwards. I don't remember seeing the launch/disaster live.
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Post by Daikon on Jan 28, 2016 1:44:07 GMT
I was not at school that day because my grandma passed away that morning. I remember standing in front of the tv trying to figure out what just happened. I didn't know what happened until I returned to school. I was so wrapped up in what was going on at home to pay attention.
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