Today was 18 years ago that the Challenger shuttle exploded

[Rebel Queen 1980]

I was 6 years old at the time and I was home from school
that day,well at my aunt's house taking a nap and she
woke me up and told me about it.,I didn't know what was
really going,until the next school day when our teachers
and the all other kindergartens told us about it.So long
ago,But I remember it like as if it were just yesterday.

[dandelion wine]

Originally posted by Ags2000
I was 7 1/2 at the time and living in Florida. We hadn't been there that long. I remember that day like it was yesterday. My class was outside on the playground at the time having snacks and watching the shuttle take off. (You could see the shuttle take off and land where I lived) I can remember sitting there watching it go and then all of a sudden *poof* it was just gone. You could see the debris falling back down. It was somplete silence then somebody screamed. The teachers put us into the nearest classroom. They wanted us in because you could see debris falling for awhile.

The next time a shuttle went up I was in 5th grade. They wouldn't let anyone outside incase anything happened. They had all the windows closed and nobody was allowed to change classes. A teacher was standing by the tv set incase anything happened they could turn it off. We all sat there really quiet until it passed the time the Challenger exploded.

About 2 years ago, I went to Washington D.C. for the first time and when we went to Arlington Cemetery I visited the memorial that had been erected for the Challenger, it's really nice. I have a picture here.

D

Thanks for sharing that picture with us, Ags. It's beautiful.

[Ags2000]

Originally posted by little insomniac
Thanks for sharing that picture with us, Ags. It's beautiful.

No problem.

D

[Janice]

Originally posted by little insomniac
Thanks for sharing that picture with us, Ags. It's beautiful.

It really is.

[Ags2000]

Originally posted by Janice
It really is.

It was really emoyional seeing it for the first time. It's location is right across from the tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The 2nd time I went happened to be the day Columbia exploded. People had turned that into a memorial for Columbia. It was really neat.


D

[I am Him]

I was 11 at the time. I was eating lunch in the school cafeteria.

That disaster had a much bigger impact than the more recent Columbia disaster.

It happened in 1986 when the shuttle program was still relatively new. NASA had launched so many successful manned missions that it wasn't believed an accident like that was possible.

There were so many high hopes for the future of back then. People still believed there would be space stations and moon bases by the year 2000.

Since NASA landed the first men on the moon, the US was in the lead with regards to manned space flight.

So the Challenger exploding was as shocking as “911” was.

Suddenly the future of manned space exploration was in question. No space stations and no moon base.

A month after the Challenger exploded, the Soviet Union began launching Space Station Mir into orbit. The United States lost the lead in manned space flight.

[Liza]

Originally posted by I am Him
I was 11 at the time. I was eating lunch in the school cafeteria.

That disaster had a much bigger impact than the more recent Columbia disaster.

It happened in 1986 when the shuttle program was still relatively new. NASA had launched so many successful manned missions that it wasn't believed an accident like that was possible.

There were so many high hopes for the future of back then. People still believed there would be space stations and moon bases by the year 2000.

Since NASA landed the first men on the moon, the US was in the lead with regards to manned space flight.

So the Challenger exploding was as shocking as “911” was.

Suddenly the future of manned space exploration was in question. No space stations and no moon base.

A month after the Challenger exploded, the Soviet Union began launching Space Station Mir into orbit. The United States lost the lead in manned space flight.

This is true, but I think the real reason that the Challenger had such a bigger impact was the fact that a teacher was onboard. She wasn't an astronaut, she won a contest from around the country to be the first teacher in space. Her entire class was outside watching, and schoolchildren around the country (like me) were gathered around the tvs to watch. I think it was that it was an educational program - intended to further interest in space exploration for young kids - and it blew up before our very eyes. It happened so long ago and I still haven't forgiven my old teachers for sending us home without telling us what we'd seen.

[Jokerette]

I was only three years old at the time the Challenge exploded but I saw news clips of the report on the day it happened and cried. Such an tragic thing.

RIP to all the victims and deepest sympathies to their families.

[MikeZ]

I live in Florida, and was standing outside in our shopping center, with a group of people. It was a very clear day, with few clouds. We saw the shuttle once it got above the treetops. What a great sight it was, gleaming in the bright sunlight. Then, we saw the explosion, and a few seconds later heard the boom. At first some people thought it was just the booster droping off the shutttle, but very soon it was way too clear that it was a huge problem. We all watched until everything had dropped down below our view. The two white trails of where it exploded remained hanging in the air for what seemed forever. That scene has replayed in my mind hundreds ot times. Also, the sight of the faces of the parents of the teacher, as they slowly realized what had happened.

[Lynn]

Originally posted by Liza
This is true, but I think the real reason that the Challenger had such a bigger impact was the fact that a teacher was onboard. She wasn't an astronaut, she won a contest from around the country to be the first teacher in space. Her entire class was outside watching, and schoolchildren around the country (like me) were gathered around the tvs to watch. I think it was that it was an educational program - intended to further interest in space exploration for young kids - and it blew up before our very eyes. It happened so long ago and I still haven't forgiven my old teachers for sending us home without telling us what we'd seen.

Yes, exactly. It was such a big deal that a teacher was going into space so all the schools made a huge event out of it. I was in 3rd grade and I remember watching it on TV in the library. At first when it exploded, no one really knew what happened. When the teachers finally realized what was going on, they told us what happened and we bowed our heads for a moment of silence. It seemed like the TV kept showing it explode over and over again. It was so shocking and so many kids watched it happen. I'll never forget it.