re: 29 years ago today: Space Shuttle Challenger exploded

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ChineseBandit58

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where did you work?

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where did you work?

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NASA/Houston.

I was an engineer for McDonnell since the Mercury program. Went to Houston in '64. Worked on every manned space program the country has ever had up thru the Space Station. Knew all astronauts personally up thru the first few Shuttle astronauts and their backups. Dick Truly and Bob Crippen were personal friends of mine.

I worked in crew training, procedures development, systems requirements, and simulator design.

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NASA/Houston.

I was an engineer for McDonnell since the Mercury program.

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I bet you have a million interesting stories. And I also bet that you and I probably know a few of the same people. There are still a lot of engineers around Clear Lake that are pretty long in the tooth. I could listen to those stories all day. One day I was mowing the grass and stopped to talk to a neighbor and before I knew it, we had been sitting in my garage for about 3 hours just drinking beer and me listening to his stories.

I was just thinking about this earlier when I noticed the date on my computer. I was 10, and the same cold weather that caused the accident had brought ice to Atlanta so schools were closed. My mom and dad both had to work, so I was next door with my grandmother and watched it on TV. I took it really hard, as I wanted to have something to do with the space program when I grew up. I remember coming down from my bedroom that night to listen to Reagan's address to the nation.

We went to Disney either that summer or the following summer, and took a side trip to Kennedy and did the tour. The VAB was off limits and we speculated it was because they were doing reconstruction with the salvaged pieces.

I was in college before I realized that the crew compartment stayed intact and they could have easily been alive all the way down. Probably a good thing that my 10 year old self did not know that back then.

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Did you know Fred Haise?

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Yes - the Apollo 13 crew was the crew which I knew best. My job at that time was training the Command Module Pilot for lunar rendezvous in case the CM had to perform the rendezvous. Haise was the Lunar Module Pilot so I had less contact with him than the other two, But I had many interfaces with the full crew.

All of them were absolutely great guys. Ken Mattingly (my closest friend of all the astronauts) was supposed to have been the Command Module Pilot but he had been exposed to measles prior to launch and had not been vaccinated. So his backup, Jack Swigert, took his place. Jack had been a hard case in training. He had trouble with all the failures we threw at him during training sessions and one time threw the procedures book inside the simulator so hard he damaged (slightly) a component. Real hot-head. But he was dedicated to the task and spent a lot of extra time mastering the procedures - so as a consequence he spent more time in the simulator than all but one (Bill Pogue) of any Apollo astronaut.

I had known Lovell since the Gemini program but had limited time with him during Apollo.

Forgive me for reminiscing = those were the halcyon days.

I was staking out a 10 acre plot in Sulphur Springs, TX and it was cold as shite that morning.

I was in Pre-K in Round Rock Texas, watching this on TV.

I remember our teacher was crying, but none of us really got it.

Your experiences sound so interesting that it almost appears made up . Not calling you a liar, just that's an amazing experience that I couldn't imagine getting to partake in myself. Has to be a surreal feeling to be a part of all of that. I go to work everyday waiting for 5 o'clock. You helped send people to the freakin' moon.

Did anyone at Huntsville know Bill Mace?
He held a patent(team) for the polymer used on the skylab wings.
Worked there for a while in the 70's before going to IBM.