In Solemn Remembrance - 1/28/1986

wbarnhill

wbarnhill

Final Approach
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iEXTERMINATE
23 years, and those who slipped the surly bonds of Earth to touch the face of God are not forgotten.

 
Thank you, William, for reminding us.
 
I was almost 4 and I still remember my mom driving me to daycare. She stopped in the road and got out of the car to see the unthinkable. We were living in NE Florida at the time, about 90 mi north of the Cape.
 
I was working in Boise... my first full-time job as a pilot.
 
College - got back from class, heard some commotion at the front desk. Asked what was going on, someone said "The Challenger exploded." I figured I didn't hear them correctly, 'cause that was just too nuts. Went to the basement TV lounge and learned otherwise. :nonod:
 
I was busy outfitting a boat for commercial fishing in Morro Bay. I first heard it on the radio, stopped work for the day and went to the bar to watch the TV.
 
I was at work when someone told me about it. Turned on the radio quick. The internet wasn't what it is today. A friend of our son's had been there to see the launch (Scouby was a family friend of theirs) but had returned to San Jose to go back to school due to the delays. Fortunately he wasn't there to see it.

23 years. It seems like just yesterday.
 
flyersfan31 said:
College - got back from class, heard some commotion at the front desk. Asked what was going on, someone said "The Challenger exploded." I figured I didn't hear them correctly, 'cause that was just too nuts. Went to the basement TV lounge and learned otherwise. :nonod:
Click to expand...

Same for me - studying in the Physics building and a grad student made the announcement. Saw it over and over and over on cable later that day...one of those events you'll never forget where and what you were doing...


Trapper John
 
SkyHog said:
:( I was 4 years old.
Click to expand...

I was 5 and my mom had kept me home to watch the Challenger (I was an aviation buff back then). She yelled "Andrew, close your eyes!", started crying, and put her hand over my eyes while turning off the TV.

I remember that like it was yesterday...

Sigh. In solemn remembrance, indeed.
 
I was downtown Houston, at Exxon's computer center, 10th floor, Exxon Building. A bunch of people clustered under speaker in the ceiling paying radio with ongoing reports.

Went downstairs, got into the car and drove back to the office. Every flag I passed (it had been, perhaps, 15 minutes?), whether in front of government or private facilities, was at half-staff, and most cars had headlights on. Houston loved its astronauts, still does.

23 years has not dulled the ache much, has it? Like it was yesterday.
 
Walking into first year lawschool classes and not believing it when I heard it. Think no way your BSing me.
 
I was barely 2. I don't remember it personally, but I remember my dad's accounts of that day. He was at work at the TV station when it happened, to this day he gets chocked up when he talks about having to watch that video over and over in the hours and days that followed. As an avid space-nut myself, I've watched that video, listened to the tapes, and read the transcripts many times; I don't remember the day it happened, but I'll still never forget.
 
I was 12, I was a space nut but was unable to talk my mom into letting me stay home to watch the launch. I remember hearing about it at school, most teachers changed the subject of their class to talk about it. But what I remember most was my admiration for those who would risked their lives in the persuit of greater knowlage and understanding for the whole of the world.
 
To those who stayed home from school to watch the launch: Why, no TV at school? In our classroom we watched Apollo XI from launch to splashdown.
 
Richard said:
To those who stayed home from school to watch the launch: Why, no TV at school? In our classroom we watched Apollo XI from launch to splashdown.
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I don't remember there being a TV in our classroom until I was in 3rd grade, which was 88-89.

Cheers,

-Andrew
 
They don't make as many people like that as they used to, which is a shame. This world needs more of them.
 
I was a work. Someone brought a TV in from home and the whole computer department stopped to watch the lift-off. It was a nasty cold day, just like today, and it had been for about a week. TV talking heads had been complaining that the lift-off had been delayed so often and if they didn't go this time, it would be a long wait for the next try.

The sight of the lift-off was beautiful, then started to turn wrong. We were gasping and screaming, not knowing what to do. I can't watch it any more even now.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/archives/sts-51L.html
 
I remember CapCom (or whatever they call the shuttle equivalent) calling, repeatedly:

"Challenger, Houston - do you read" "Challenger, Houston"

No answer.

I have never forgiven my Kindergarten teacher for leaving her TV at home. She promised we would watch an Apollo launch - I think it was XVI - and she forgot her TV. I was fit to be tied!!!
 
flyersfan31 said:
I remember CapCom (or whatever they call the shuttle equivalent) calling, repeatedly:

"Challenger, Houston - do you read" "Challenger, Houston"

No answer.

I have never forgiven my Kindergarten teacher for leaving her TV at home. She promised we would watch an Apollo launch - I think it was XVI - and she forgot her TV. I was fit to be tied!!!
Click to expand...

Still called CapCom; hopefully always will be.
 
Interesting how you remember where you were during things like that.

I went downstairs in the dorm to head to class. The RA's had the TV on and were riveted to it and totally silent which was very unusual behavior for them. I stopped to see what had their attention. Half an hour later I walked into class about 15 minutes late. I stepped through the door and someone instantly started poking fun at me and said "you're late, you're never late." I looked around. No one had a clue. Everything was all good in the world. Needless to say I pretty much disrupted the class after that.
 
I had just got to sleep after a long night shift. I had a turn around shift and had to be back to work in 8 hours. My brother heard it on the radio, and since he wasn't far from my apartment he came straight over and woke me up to tell me what happened. We sat on the sofa for hours watching the coverage until I had to get dressed and go back to work. No way I could have gone back to sleep after seeing that video.:frown2:
 
I was <1. My dad was snowmobiling in the UP and found out when they stopped at a gas station and the guy at the desk had the news on the TV there.
 
I had just come back from a flight.. we were sitting in the debrief when the news came through the squadron. I had just passed Mach 1 for the first time in the B-1.

B-1B
Instructor, Offensive Systems Officer
USAF Master Navigator
 
I watched it live on TV from my couch and said to myself, at least they never knew what hit them, RIP. Then many months later watched on TV showing construction of the big O rings and a video cam rolled the entire length of the new O ring installed in the first shuttle to resume flying. Thankfully they've all held so far.
 
At the time, I was a copier tech in Greeley, Colorado. I was responsible for all the machines at the University of Northern Colorado and been busy all morning there. After several preventive maintenance calls, I finally had to run back to the shop and pick up parts. Just as I was about to walk back out, I hear the news on the overhead. The accident was a couple hours earlier. My vision of that day is still very clear.

When I heard about the Columbia's loss, it was when I called a friend just as I was about to drop off my car for warranty work at Carmax. That friend was a former Martin-Marietta engineer who worked on the oxygen/energy generator system for the early shuttle program.

We've had many events such as this where we'll always remember where we were. There will be more. I just hope there are fewer as time passes on.
 
I was in 6th grade, sitting in Mrs. Backus' art class when the principal walked in and told us the space shuttle blew up and if we wanted, we could go down to the auditorium and watch the coverage. My family had gone to Florida for spring break about 9 months earlier and I was fascinated with the space program. I didn't get to see a shuttle launch, but I did get to see an Atlas rocket launch. I also had a book about the shuttle, with the second-by-second chronology of what was supposed to happen. Even then, I knew what "Max Q" was. The accident caused me to dive back into the book. Similarly, September 11th caused me to dive into aviation. In the same fashion, I'm pretty sure that Challenger also had a great deal to do with my sister becoming an engineer for NASA years later.
 
Teller1900 said:
Still called CapCom; hopefully always will be.
Click to expand...

Yup. It's pretty hard to see in this pic, but if you look right in the middle, you can see the Flight Director position in the 2nd row from the back. CapCom sits to the right of the Flight Director (left in this pic).

web.jpg


Edit: Here's a better pic, from the public's eye view. You can read the "CAPCOM" sign on the right about 1/3 of the way up from the bottom:

web.jpg
 
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I was an editor at a newspaper near Atlanta. It was the first day I'd ever called in sick in my life. At one point, I called my second-in-command to see how things were going, and she said, "The Challenger exploded and everyone died." Yeah, right. I didn't believe her at first, but I turned on the TV and watched Peter Jennings for the rest of the day.
 
I was working at Sunstrand Aviation. We made several components in the Space Shuttle. It hit us all pretty hard.
 
I was at a shopping center with my daughter, who was 5 at the time. We stopped in front of an electronics store to watch the launch on TV.

She asked what happened, and I told her that the spaceship exploded. I don't think she grasped that there were people inside until her kindergarten teacher talked about it in school.

-Rich
 
High Flight​

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air. . . .
Up, up the long, delirious burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or ever eagle flew —
And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.
​
— John Gillespie Magee, Jr
http://www.skygod.com/quotes/highflight.html
 
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