NASA Shuttle Specific Sections > Shuttle History - Pre-RTF
Challenger STS-51L
Chris Bergin:
The main thread (edited to remove old dead links, etc) for STS-51L.
Main articles:
http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/?s=51L
Space101:
Where was everyone when it happened? I was just a little kid, but I remember the newsflash as it interupted a kids show I was watching.
Chris Bergin:
--- Quote ---Space101 - 30/11/2005 9:18 PM
Where was everyone when it happened? I was just a little kid, but I remember the newsflash as it interupted a kids show I was watching.
--- End quote ---
I remember it really well, even though I didn't see the launch live.
I was doing a paper round (as a young kid, obviously) and after I got back to the newsagents at the end of the round I heard two people say in the shop, with one saying to the other "Shit! The Space Shuttle's just exploded" (the shop had a radio on all the time and I assume they heard it over that).
I got home five minutes later and my Mum had Channel 4 or ITV on (I know it was ITN News), which was showing the live pictures of the downrange over the Atlantic, with debris splashing into the sea. They then showed a parachute - which the TV commentator was raising false hopes it was one of the crew. Someone must have corrected him as he then said he was told it was a paramedic dropping in.
Anyway, my previous experiences of Shuttles was only from making an airfix model of Columbia with my Dad - a big Apollo fan - a few years before (sadly not flight worthy for long after my younger brother - then a toddler - decided to chew on it).
I was glued to the TV throughout the coverage of the disaster and the next day went to the Library to get some books on the Shuttles. That's when I got hooked and that's actually how it all started for me.
Spacely:
I saw it live, at home with my mom, as my school started later in the day that week.
It's weird, but before all the current, feverish 'net discussions about NASA's long-term viability and problems with the Shuttle, I remember America being really into the program. The whole 81-86 time was a sort of NASA silver age. Anyway, I saw the "event" live. I don't recall being particularly devastated; just sort of numbed and thinking "this is big." My parents took it pretty hard.
To this day I still have the Challenge toy set that I had gotten sometime around 1984.
Flightstar:
There was a feeling it was coming. We were under more and more pressure and people were starting to feel like machines. This was 84, 85 and then they were looking to launch around 11 missions in 86. I didn't watch the launch for the first time. I went home the day before as the next day I wasn't in. I didn't have the TV on or the radio on but it wasn't long before a neighbor came over and I knew right away from the look on his face. I remember feeling furious, rather than sad. I don't want to say too much.
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