re: I remember my elementary school teacher walking in with tears when Challenger exploded

I heard the Sonic boom.

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Gen X assemble?

She rolled a TV into the room on a stand so that we could see the news. A big tube TV that probably weighed 150 lbs.

#1986

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Exact same story.

I was a freshman in high school. We were sitting around wondering where the science teacher was and he came in with one of those rolling stands with a TV and turned it on.

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quote: An expensive lesson in lives and money for going with the lowest bidder.

The problem wasn't going with the lowest bidder. The problem was that when the lowest bidder told NASA, 'We built it to your specifications and launching in these temperatures is outside those specifications. The o-rings might not hold and you risk losing the vehicle if you insist on launching.', NASA didn't listen to the lowest bidder. Instead of listening to their supplier and scrubbing the launch until temperatures were back within spec, NASA launched anyway and killed their crew.

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To make matters even worse, NASA knew they had Solid Rocket Booster O-Ring issues from previous launches. The SRBs were reconditioned and repacked with propellant by Morton Thiokol in Utah and shipped back to FL in sections. The sections were then stacked, with a pair of O-rings at each joint, at the Cape.

There was evidence of "blow by" after several previous flights. NASA's biggest concern was the boosters not burning evenly. Nobody thought that the burning propellant might blow by onto one of the braces holding the SRBs to the shuttle assembly.

Also, although almost everyone talks about the orbiter "blowing up", it really didn't. It broke apart from aerodynamic forces after the SRB leak burned through the bracket and started the breakup.

I was 13 and had stayed home from school. It was the first time that my mom went to work when I was home sick. I was in bed and woke up to the phone ringing around 9 o'clock I think. When I answered it my mom told me to turn on the TV and tell her what I saw. She wouldn't tell me what I was supposed to see, she just kept telling me to turn it on. I remember asking her which channel and she said it didn't matter, any channel.

I was too stunned to say anything for about a minute. I finally told her "I think they're saying the space shuttle blew up." She told me that's what everyone was saying at work and she just wanted to know if it was true or not and hung up. I think I watched the news about it for the rest of the day and I kept wanting them to show what actually happened instead of talking about it because I really couldn't believe it without seeing it. It felt like it was an hour or so before they finally showed a replay of the actual launch and explosion.

Teacher from my hometown was one of the finalist to ride on that shuttle. We watched it in the library during lunch.

True story... In her class in 8th grade in 1982 she explained that the gulf coast beaches were comparable to the French Riveria and l blurted out "yeah, more like the redneck riveria."

I coined that phrase, and she didn't get to ride in the shuttle.

My teacher was one of the finalists to go. It was very traumatic when it happened, not to mention the movie Poltergeist was on tv that night. Had insomnia for quite a while after that.

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Saw it explode outside, about 100 miles away

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MoarKilometers

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Name does NOT check out.

I was in the 8th grade and missed the bus that morning. I'll never forget that bowl of Honey-nut Cheerios that I couldn't finish...to this day just the scent of them nauseates me due to the connection to that memory.

I remember 2 things:

1) watching the rocket boosters sailing off in different directions like cheap bottle rockets and thinking, "That ain't supposed to happen, is it?" (I can still see that Rorschach-like shape the ball of gas with the two zig-zagging rocket exhaust trails growing out of it)

2) The immediate silence that lasted forever, with the camera on Krista McAuliff's parents, especially her mother's confused, strained smile...seemed like an eternity before someone finally said, "Obviously a major malfunction..."