I live 90 miles downrange from Canaveral on the east coast of Fla. I was at work that day on the
South side of the Fort Pierce inlet and watched live as the event transpired. It is indelibly printed on my mind. Somethings can never be erased.

I was an 18 year old Army ROTC new cadet (freshman) in the Virgnia Tech Corps of Cadets standing outside McBride Hall on campus and chatting with a non-cadet friend from high school when the news and talk about the disaster spread. I still remember it well.

I was in the children's ward of our regional hospital standing beside my six-year-old daughter's bedside waiting for her to awake up from her operation when it came up on the BBC breaking news channel. She had just had a major operation to try and get her legs to work.

The 'fix' lasted about two years, and then that was it.

So, very mixed-up feeling day - one half full of hope, the other half filled with sorrow.

Bless.

I was working as a senior engineer for a consulting firm. The boss had just assigned me to a three year project on a new pipeline from Saudi Arabia into Yemen.

The office staff had the radio on when they announced the shuttle had exploded.

A couple of minuets later, I received a phone call offering me a job for a corporation in another state.

I took the job for the corporation in another state. Those five to ten minuets changed my life and burned it into my memory

The saddest thing about this was the look on Christa McAuliffe's parents faces when that thing exploded. There's YT videos of the launch where there's a TV camera that zooms in on their faces when the launch happens and they go from excitement ...to confusion...to panic...then horror when it hits them what just happened.

quote:

Originally posted by kkina:
It's believed that the seven crewmembers were still alive and conscious for at least 10 seconds after the explosion. Three of the emergency breathing packs were found to have been activated.

Such a sad day (I was working at a biomedical startup company at the time.)

I believe there were also switches thrown in the cockpit that would not be in that position at launch.
Guessing the crew were trying to fix what they believed to be a problem, before decompression & loss of consciousness.

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
The saddest thing about this was the look on Christa McAuliffe's parents faces when that thing exploded. There's YT videos of the launch where there's a TV camera that zooms in on their faces when the launch happens and they go from excitement ...to confusion...to panic...then horror when it hits them what just happened.

Damn, that's a video I hope I never see. That would leave a mark on a normal persons soul.

Jim

I remember how stunned I was, I watched it live on tv. Total disbelief at first.

My wife and I were shopping in K-Mart and there was a crowd of silent folk around the televisions on display. A startling and strange tragedy carried live on national tv.

I believe I'll have to catch that documentary. May they rest in peace.

I was in my second year at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona. I remember it was bitter cold that morning.

I was driving to class on Route 92 that morning heading east. As I turned south toward the school I could see the shuttle rising up, 60 miles away. I thought "cool, a space shuttle launch!".

A few seconds later it turned into a big orange fireball with the solid rocket motors spiraling away. I remember thinking something doesn't look right, because I had seen other launches and they never looked like that.

By the time I parked the car and got to the classroom, everyone on campus was outside looking south. It was surreal.

After class I went to a friends apartment to watch the news coverage. That was a terrible day for aerospace.

I was in high school. Our chemistry teacher had wheeled in a TV and we were watching it live.