I was just rewatching the old footage from that fateful day in January 86...
where wereyou?
what were you ding?
How old were you?
What do you remember/how were you feeling/were there people around...etc...
do you remember it clearly or just hazily?
I was at school (9th grade) 14 years old, and i was on my way to the cafeteria for lunch...i stopped in to the infirmary, which was on the same floor, because the nurse had a big tv in there, and lots of kids would go in to hang out with her cause she was very nice and cool...anyway, the tv was on and several of us were watching the launch...there had been so much publicity because Christa McAuliffe was going up...I still remember how confused everyone was at first, i remember watching it on CNN which was still only in its first couple of years, and remember the dialogue almost word for word
YouTube - Challenger Disaster Live on CNN
I remember at first thinking that everything was okay, and maybe just the main tank and rocket boosters had separated too soon, but then when the telemetry and flight control's voice in the background said "obviously a major malfunction", and i remember watching the solid rocket boosters spinning down down down, and all the smoke and contrails were so easily seen because the sky was so clear and blue...i remember hoping and hoping that there was some kind of massive parachute/emergency device for the crew compartment, but i had a feeling there wasn't and then whne the camera panned to all the families sitting there watching it, it was heartbreaking...it spread so fast through the school, but nobody would believe you when you told them...i remember people walking by the open door and we were all glued to the TV, and a person or two would walk by every few seconds and say "what's going on" and you would say "Challenger exploded", and people didn't believe you at first, but then came in and watched...i remember the rest of the days people did virtually no homework or anything, class rooms with TV's the library the AV rooms all were tuned in and the rest of the day everyone just watched.
Say what you want about Reagan, but his speech at the memorial was really beautiful...it was such a terrible day...
I think the one thing that makes me ultra-furious, was a few weeks (or days, i can't remember) later, when they were attempting to figure out what happened to the crew, and it was a big controversy, about whether they were conscious, if they knew what was happening, since they all survived the initial explosion etc...there was an awful tabloid magazine that claimed it had a voice recording from the cockpit, and they transcribed the 2 minutes or so of freefall, with the crew praying, screaming, crying...it was vile and despicable...anyone remember that? I honestly still, to this day would like to meet the jerk that wrote that, the person who published it and the people who okayed it...what a bunch of a-holes
where wereyou?
what were you ding?
How old were you?
What do you remember/how were you feeling/were there people around...etc...
do you remember it clearly or just hazily?
I was at school (9th grade) 14 years old, and i was on my way to the cafeteria for lunch...i stopped in to the infirmary, which was on the same floor, because the nurse had a big tv in there, and lots of kids would go in to hang out with her cause she was very nice and cool...anyway, the tv was on and several of us were watching the launch...there had been so much publicity because Christa McAuliffe was going up...I still remember how confused everyone was at first, i remember watching it on CNN which was still only in its first couple of years, and remember the dialogue almost word for word
YouTube - Challenger Disaster Live on CNN
I remember at first thinking that everything was okay, and maybe just the main tank and rocket boosters had separated too soon, but then when the telemetry and flight control's voice in the background said "obviously a major malfunction", and i remember watching the solid rocket boosters spinning down down down, and all the smoke and contrails were so easily seen because the sky was so clear and blue...i remember hoping and hoping that there was some kind of massive parachute/emergency device for the crew compartment, but i had a feeling there wasn't and then whne the camera panned to all the families sitting there watching it, it was heartbreaking...it spread so fast through the school, but nobody would believe you when you told them...i remember people walking by the open door and we were all glued to the TV, and a person or two would walk by every few seconds and say "what's going on" and you would say "Challenger exploded", and people didn't believe you at first, but then came in and watched...i remember the rest of the days people did virtually no homework or anything, class rooms with TV's the library the AV rooms all were tuned in and the rest of the day everyone just watched.
Say what you want about Reagan, but his speech at the memorial was really beautiful...it was such a terrible day...
I think the one thing that makes me ultra-furious, was a few weeks (or days, i can't remember) later, when they were attempting to figure out what happened to the crew, and it was a big controversy, about whether they were conscious, if they knew what was happening, since they all survived the initial explosion etc...there was an awful tabloid magazine that claimed it had a voice recording from the cockpit, and they transcribed the 2 minutes or so of freefall, with the crew praying, screaming, crying...it was vile and despicable...anyone remember that? I honestly still, to this day would like to meet the jerk that wrote that, the person who published it and the people who okayed it...what a bunch of a-holes
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