23 years ago today: Challenger

I was walking from the newspaper building to the parking lot, knew the launch was due and looked east. When I saw the contrail looking like a drunken Y, or some letter in an ancient language, I knew it had hit the fan. Ran back to the newsroom, watched the TV and felt ill. I'd grown up in the space program, once almost lost my dad when a launch was aborted and debris rained down when he was standing outside the launch-control "blockhouse." But nothing had prepared me for such a horrific sight.

 

I was a freshman at Wauwatosa East High School and I was in study hall at the time. They announced it over the P.A., and all of us in the study hall turned on the TV to watch the coverage.

The first sight of the explosion was mind-blowing and scary.

Of course, that didn't stop the juvenile jokes from flying around just days later.

 

"Did you hear Christa McCauliffe showered before the flight?
"How do they know?"
"Her head and shoulders washed up on the beach."

 

I agree with that. I'm 36 -- too young for JFK or the moon landing -- and remember Reagan getting shot (I was in third grade). For me, the Challenger exploding, the Berlin Wall coming down and Magic Johnson announcing he was HIV postive were other moments when I remember where I was.

As for the Challenger, I was in eighth grade. We had a subustitue teacher for a half-hour homeroom class. He came in and said he heard there was a fire on the shuttle, but that was all he knew. I had a pass to go to the band room and left. On my way there, other classrooms were rolling in TVs (we had this weird junior-high setup where all of the classes were in an open space and only divided by temporary walls, so you could see into almost every room as you walked through the area) and I saw that it was more than a fire. I think I just stood in the back of one of those rooms and watched the coverage until my next class started.

 

I was in sixth grade and we came in early to watch the launch. Right after it happened we sat there in silence for about an hour and then they sent us all home. They did something similar when Reagan was shot, I think I was in first grade when that happened. Those are the only two times school was canceled for something other than weather.

 

The ABC News coverage in a big package:

Good work about a tragic, tragic event.

 

There is one of those Urban Legends out there about a columnist (I'm not going to say which one.) who was supposedly covering the Challenger launch. Apparently, he overslept and filed a story about how glorious the launch was, not having any idea what had actually happened.

I have zero idea if it's true, but an editor told me that on I guess what would have been the 15th anniversary of the Challenger. Has anyone else heard that story?

 

That's always my first though when I hear of the Challenger. My sister, six years older than me, watched the episode when it first came out, and she was very moved by it.

I wasn't old enough to process any of the information.

 

So, how is skydiving done?

 

How high was the Challenger when it exploded? Skydiving isn't done beyond a certain elevation, at least not without oxygen tanks.

 

Walked into the student union between classes and the TV lounge was full. Everyone was in there watching the coverage of the explosion.

The one lasting image I took from that day was the video of Christa McAuliffe's parents watching the launch and explosion from the official reviewing stand and not understanding they had just witnessed the death of their daughter.

CNN ran that footage over and over.

 

I was a senior in college.. It was cold that day.. I was on the elevator up to my room after what must have been my last class because I was finished by noon that late in my career.. so it was noonish... as I was getting off the eighth floor, one of my friends was getting in... he asked me if heard about the shuttle.. i was like, no what?.. he said it blew up....I didn't believe him. Raced to the TV. Then spent the rest of the afternoon watching it explode over and over again....brutal.