I thought the Challenger series on Netflix was well done. Sometimes it feels like I am catching up on stuff I should have known more about, but like you, I think I was sheltered from Challenger - I knew it happened but that’s about all. Only during engineering school did I learn more.
Reminds me of 9/11, where I was on a mission and only got a little bit of news then got back to work. I still feel like I learn new things and visiting the 9/11 Memorial and museum a couple of years ago was perhaps when it really hit and I could experience the emotional response that most felt in 2001.
I don’t know if I saw this live or if it was a recording and quite frankly it doesn’t matter. What does matter to me is that I was in 8th grade and I was sitting in my science class watching with my science teacher who was one of the 12 finalists (teacher) for the shuttle launch. Looking back, I now assume that he knew some of the people on board the shuttle that day and that explains why he stepped out of the classroom.
Fast forward to the Columbia disaster. That morning I was getting ready to go up to Clearfield to support an experimental rocket motor case we were winding that day. I turned on the TV as I was getting ready and remember thinking I hadn’t watched a landing in a while. Then I sat there listening to Capcom call for the vehicle after the blackout period and getting no reply. Five to ten minutes went by and I knew they were gone. Driving to Clearfield I tuned to KSL thinking there would be a break-in for regular programming. Nothing. That blew me away.
Later the company actually hired the shuttle program guy who insisted it couldn’t be the foam that they knew, they EFFING KNEW!, was coming off the external tank during launch to run NASA programs. I still can’t believe that. Of course, I hold a grudge against that guy since he put a block on me being interviewed by Spaceflight Now regarding use of composite structures on Ares I. Real corporate team player, that guy.
I didn’t see it live, but I do remember what I was doing. I was at the orthodontist getting my braces put back on. Heard about it on the radio on the way back to school. Got back to school and watched replays of it in my history class.
I was working in an outdoor program for juvenile offenders. We have been in the woods for 3 weeks without access to news excetera and I distinctly remember when we were told it had happend.
It was also interesting that everyone my age or older - I was 25 at the time - was blown away with shock and grief, but a lot of the younger kids were too young to appreciate the space program and also many came from such disparaging settings that they just weren’t interested in space exploration.
I was in the army and we had just got back from downrange. We were cleaning our weapons and watching the launch of Challenger. It’s still surreal how Challenger exploded and none of us knew what to think about it. Mostly we couldn’t wrap our heads around the idea that it had actually exploded.
For whatever reason I wasn’t working that day. My youngest sister who was about 4 at the time was mad because the news was on instead of Sesame Street. I don’t recall if I watched it live but I certainly could have.
At the very dreadful moment of the explosion, I was presenting a rocketry demonstration to visiting school children at the Hansen Planetarium. During my demo, planetarium staff were trickling into the room behind me (as I found out later, to watch the tv located there). A visibly shaken coworker told me the news after I finished. I had to remain composed because another group was scheduled for a demonstration, and I had to alter some of the more ‘explosive’ elements of the demonstration so as to not upset the kids, who by now were aware of the Challenger’s fate. Tough day.
After I got home that evening I put in my copy of The Right Stuff into the VCR, which helped restore my perspective on the risks & benefits of the space program.
I was getting ready to leave a store I was working at to head up to classes at “The U”. Overheard someone in the backroom say what happened, walked past the electronics area on the way out and saw a crowd watching the TVs.
In my truck turned on (likely KSL) a news station and started to listen. When they started talking about the school the teacher was from and that her students had watched in horror as she perished I was so choked up I had to quickly turn it off so I could remain composed enough to safely drive.
Later that day in the Student Union, some of us were gathered in front of a TV that was set up listening and watching with many of us consoling and hugging each other and crying.