Remembering Challenger 28 years ago

Tenth floor data center, Exxon Building, Houston. Twenty minutes later, I headed out to return to office, and every headlamp was lit, every flag at half-staff.

Houston loves its astronauts...
 
Frat house. It was the quietest day ever even with all brothers gathered around.
 
I worked on several components that flew on the SS. I had a lot of pride with the products "we" built for the program. The astronauts would visit the production facilities of the subcontractors from time to time. I was always star struck by them, they were the best of the best.

Losing the Challenger hurt. The system failed to protect them. Complacency, egos, and a mentality that "nothing could go wrong because nothing had gone wrong" prevailed. That attitude was costly. The Challenger was a very costly management lesson.

Thanks for posting the reminder.
 
It was on my wife's birthday. I had stayed home from work to spend the day with her. She was getting ready for us to go to lunch and I was watching the coverage while waiting on her. I had remarked to my wife that I could not believe they were even considering a launch with icicles hanging from the launch pad. Transitioning from freezing temperatures to the high temperatures of the rockets is pretty severe on any material. It was a very sad day in our space program history. RIP to all that were on board that day.
 
I was about two years old when the Challenger disaster happened. I suspect the sencond leading factor in the Shuttle retirement was risk. The Soyuz platform being more robust and protects the delicate parts of the re-entry vehicle during launch.




Chris Hadfield - "What we say in the astronaut biz is there is never anything so bad that you can't make it worse"


Such amazing machines. I saw Atlantis fly in person from Titusville Florida from my wheelchair.

And I saw Endeavour last week in LA.

 
One of the things in my bucket list that will never be done, watching a night launch of the SS.
 
I live near Daytona Bch, Fl. I was in Daytona and saw the launch, and was stunned as I saw it come apart.

Later when it was recovered, it was noted the crew was alive until impact on the water, emergency things were done in the craft after the explosion, indicating they had to have survived the initial explosion. I knew persons involved in the recovery, that information was never released to the public.
 
Sophomore in high school, a friend had one of those 'walkman' tv things. Me and him were standing in the cafeteria watching it on that little screen. That definitely sucked.
 
I had to go to the DMV over lunch to get my tags renewed. Got in the car to head out, turned on the radio, and heard a lot of talk. I figured out quickly that something big had happened, but it took about 5-10 minutes before I could found out just what it was.
 
Mrs. Greene's 8th Grade US History class. We initially heard that it had exploded on the pad, but soon the entire school was brought into the cafeteria and several TVs were rolled out. School was closed a couple hours later and we were sent home.
 
Sitting at work and heard the news.

The son of friends of ours had to be taken out of school for the day. The mission commander was a family friend and he had been in Florida to watch the launch. Came home before the launch due to the delays.
 
Geico266 said:
One of the things in my bucket list that will never be done, watching a night launch of the SS.
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When I lived in Central Florida a night launch was the most incredible site. Where we lived was on base for the Cape. When they returned we would get woke up (normally landed in the early morning) by the sonic booms. By the time we got up, hit the head and turned on the tv, they were on final.
 
I was at work at Monsanto Corporation Life Sciences Research Center in Chesterfield, Mo. It was probably on every monitor in the labs. Not much was said, people just somberly went back to work. I can still see the live news coverage shot of the Reagans' reaction to the explosion.
 
I was in the 8th grade. Home sick from school. Watched it live on tv.
 
In "study hall" time in high school. A friend had a small portable TV we were watching. Short time later the principal announced the news on the PA.

Got to see Endeavor as it was being moved to the California Science Center, and again when it was in place. Gave me chills to watch the big screen video of an Endeavor launch while standing right next to the real thing.
 
I was out on the implementation and start up phase of a control systems project. I was working 12 to 16 hours a day for several days. I had worked very late and made it in very early.

One of the customers who had a very dry sense of humor came in the room and I stopped what I was doing to fill my coffee cup. I asked him if he knew how the shuttle launch had gone. He said "it crashed and killed everyone." I just laughed and went back to my keyboard. I thought he was just showing his strange sense of humor.

I was amazed when I saw the news that night and found out that he had not been joking. The kind of thing you never forget.
 
I was a Junior (?) at Georgia Tech. Walking back from morning classes, I heard a couple of guys talking about a "Shuttle Accident" or something like that, but didn't catch any details.

When I got back to the dorm and turned on the TV, the accident was all that was on TV.

It was a very depressing day/week at Georgia Tech.
 
Watched it on tv. Couldn't belief it. May they not be forgotten.
 
I was home sick from the 6th grade, and slept through the launch coverage. I first heard about what had happened at 11:20 am CST while listening to "Sweet 98" FM out of Omaha. Spent the rest of the next two days glued to the TV.
 
I was working at the Federal Reserve in Chicago at the time. I think the Bears had won the Super Bowl the previous Sunday. The disaster certainly was a downer.
 
In the student union as a junior in college and everyone was gathered around the TV. I remember just a week or so before saying how it seemed inevitable it would happen one day because of the complexity and risks involved. So sad.
 
bahama flier said:
I live near Daytona Bch, Fl. I was in Daytona and saw the launch, and was stunned as I saw it come apart.

Later when it was recovered, it was noted the crew was alive until impact on the water, emergency things were done in the craft after the explosion, indicating they had to have survived the initial explosion. I knew persons involved in the recovery, that information was never released to the public.
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I watched it.. and every other launch.... from my work parking lot on Central Blvd in Orlando... Looked normal till the SRB's crossed and I knew instantly it was TU... Went back in and listened to the radio.. Sad day...

Back then I was HEAVY into C band satellite stuff. As in I had 6 dishes in my yard , 4 C band and two KU..... That night I was scanning the channels and stumbled across a private feed / video conference between KSC, Houston and Goddard.. They had the audio on 6.2 instead of 6.8... They had close up video on the capsule that was separated right infront of the cargo bay and with their very powerful tracking cameras, they followed it all the way to spash down.. You could almost see inside the windows of the orbitor, the pics where that clear. The cabin was the debris that was trailing black smoke, most of the rest of the wreckage was trailing white smoke...

Their discussion back and forth was debating if the crew was alive and the majority agreed it was a survivable impact as it hit the water perfectly backwards.. Of all the times I didn't have the VCR rolling..:mad2::mad2::mad:.. The worst part was every school kid was forced to watch it that day because Crista MCAuliffe (sp) was the first teacher headed to space..:sad::sad::sad::sad:
 
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N801BH said:
I watched it.. and every other launch.... from my work parking lot on Central Blvd in Orlando... Looked normal till the SRB's crossed and I knew instantly it was TU... Went back in and listened to the radio.. Sad day...

Back then I was HEAVY into C band satellite stuff. As in I had 6 dishes in my yard , 4 C band and two KU..... That night I was scanning the channels and stumbled across a private feed / video conference between KSC, Houston and Goddard.. They had the audio on 6.2 instead of 6.8... They had close up video on the capsule that was separated right infront of the cargo bay and with their very powerful tracking cameras, they followed it all the way to spash down.. You could almost see inside the windows of the orbitor, the pics where that clear. The cabin was the debris that was trailing black smoke, most of the rest of the wreckage was trailing white smoke...

Their discussion back and forth was debating if the crew was alive and the majority agreed it was a survivable impact as it hit the water perfectly backwards.. Of all the times I didn't have the VCR rolling..:mad2::mad2::mad:.. The worst part was every school kid was watching it that day because Crista MCAuliffe (sp) was the first teacher headed to space..:sad::sad::sad::sad:
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The crew is believed to have survived the explosion. There were emergency O2 packs found which were turned on.
 
We were on final approach into Santa Barbara when the controller ask if we wanted to here some really bad news. We said "sure, go ahead"....
 
I was working in the photo lab of my employer in Boise, Idaho. The backup teacher in space was from Idaho so there were many interviews with her on TV.
 
I was in the first grade. Because of McAuliffe being the first teacher is space we were watching the launch live. Pretty traumatic video even for our first grade minds..
 
I was a few years out of college and working at an A/E firm in Springfield, MO at the time. We didn't get much work done that afternoon.

The sad part is that it was completely avoidable. Years after the accident, it was revealed that management had ample warning from the engineers but ignored it. At least I only heard about it years later, maybe on the 25th anniversary.

Maybe that's what Geico was referring to when he said:

Geico266 said:
Complacency, egos, and a mentality that "nothing could go wrong because nothing had gone wrong" prevailed. That attitude was costly. The Challenger was a very costly management lesson.
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A google search of the warnings reveals this
 
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Was in 1st aid training, about 2nd Week of Basic Training at Fort Leonard Wood. Saw a brief glimpse of it on one the TV's in the Sergeants office. A few hours later they announced it to whole company. Didn't really every see any video or photos until we graduated 6 weeks later.

Brian
 
Watched it happen live on TV in 8'th grade science class. Y'know its also the 10'th anniversary of the Columbia re-entry accident. I work several people who were on that program. (They were transferred to my department after the shuttle program was shut down) A few of them worked for this launch director, he has an interesting blog and account of the culture in the shuttle program at the time. http://waynehale.wordpress.com/category/after-ten-years/
 
I was working at General Dynamics in San Diego and the building I worked in did not allow radios in the building so of course many people had small transistor radios tucked away. Not sure how I first heard but then spent most of the morning standing by a window so I could get reception and listened. Went out at lunch to find a TV and sat there for a while just watching it over and over again. Not a good day at all.
 
timwinters said:
I was a few years out of college and working at an A/E firm in Springfield, MO at the time. We didn't get much work done that afternoon.

The sad part is that it was completely avoidable. Years after the accident, it was revealed that management had ample warning from the engineers but ignored it. At least I only heard about it years later, maybe on the 25th anniversary.

Maybe that's what Geico was referring to when he said:



A google search of the warnings reveals this
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Here's one for you that backs up the engineers and damns the managers...

http://www.onlineethics.org/cms/7050.aspx
 
I was in Mrs. Backus' 6th grade art class. Our principal opened the door and said the shuttle blew up. Some of us spent the rest of the day in the library watching it all on TV.

bahama flier said:
Later when it was recovered, it was noted the crew was alive until impact on the water, emergency things were done in the craft after the explosion, indicating they had to have survived the initial explosion. I knew persons involved in the recovery, that information was never released to the public.
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Sure it was - Took a while, but I've known that for a long time.

eman1200 said:
Sophomore in high school, a friend had one of those 'walkman' tv things.
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Watchman!

timwinters said:
The sad part is that it was completely avoidable. Years after the accident, it was revealed that management had ample warning from the engineers but ignored it. At least I only heard about it years later, maybe on the 25th anniversary.
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It may make you feel better to learn that it's a case study for probably every engineering student in the country now. They specifically talk about the guy who was told "Take off your engineer hat and put on your management hat." Sucks to be that guy. :frown2:
 
I was in 7th grade and we all got called up from the gym to watch the aftermath on TV. We were not happy about basketball being interrupted.
 
us AAirways said:
The crew is believed to have survived the explosion. There were emergency O2 packs found which were turned on.
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That info has been out for awhile., and the big question was the possibility if they could have survived impact with the water. Sucks all around.


Was in college at the time, but heading to my part time job that morning. I had forgotten about the launch, the DJ came on the radio in the middle of a song to announce the shuttle had blown up.
 
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