Where were you when…
the Space Shuttle Challenger (STS-51) exploded? So asks a Slashdot poll today.
19 years ago. 28 January, 1986. Junior year of high school. I remember staying home to watch the launch. When they announced they were delaying, I went to school. Then I heard some of the kids talking in the cafeteria about how the shuttle had exploded, and I told them that it hadn’t launched that morning. I don’t clearly remember if there was an announcement over the PA, or if the teachers told us in the next class. I was in a fog the rest of the day. I do remember going home and calling information to get the number for NASA because I didn’t actually believe any of it was real. The operator assured me that the unimaginable had really happened.
I sat in front of the television for hours, just watching it explode, over and over again.
I remember yelling at the cads who told all the jokes. I still don’t think they’re funny.
We should always honor and never forget those who risk everything for the purpose of advancing our knowledge of the universe around us.
As a side note, Challenger was only the second catastrophe involving loss of life in the space program for the U.S. The first, of course, was Apollo 1, which caught fire on the launchpad, killing all three astronauts inside. That was on January 27, 1967. The third (and most recent as I write this) was Columbia, which exploded during re-entry on February 1, 2003.