Challenger Disaster Recalled 22 Years Later

by BMCWrites | January 28, 2008 at 01:22 pm

1568 views | 16 Recommendations | 12 comments

Twenty-two years ago today, I was a young Air Force second lieutenant attending the Public Affairs Officer Course at the Defense Information School, then located at Fort Benjamin Harrison in Indianapolis. During a break from morning classes, I gathered with a dozen or so of my classmates from the Army, Navy and Marine Corps in front of a break room television to watch the Space Shuttle Challenger launch. Back then, shuttle launches were still “big news.” None of us imagined how big a story the launch would become. Seventy-three seconds after launch, the shuttle exploded in flight high above the launch pad at Cape Canaveral, Fla., killing all seven crew members — including the nation’s first teacher in space. Later that day, President Ronald Reagan addressed the nation, in part, saying the following:

“The future doesn’t belong to the fainthearted; it belongs to the brave. The Challenger crew was pulling us into the future.

“There’s a coincidence today. On this day 390 years ago, the great explorer Sir Francis Drake died aboard ship off the coast of Panama. In his lifetime the great frontiers were the oceans, and a historian later said, ‘He lived by the sea, died on it, and was buried in it.’ Well, today we can say of the Challenger crew: Their dedication was, like Drake’s, complete.

“The crew of the space shuttle Challenger honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives,” he concluded. “We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved good-bye and ’slipped the surly bonds of earth’ to ‘touch the face of God.’”

It’s a day, much like 9/11 more than 15 years later, I will never forget.

-- Bob McCarty Writes

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Rob Peters

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at 13:59 on January 28th, 2008

Thanks BMCWrites, great work.

politisite

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at 15:34 on January 28th, 2008

BMCWrites, I think we all remember were we were that day. Like in other Generations: Pearl Harbor, Kennedy Assassination, 9/11. I was just think about Jan 86 today. I was in Bible College in Graceville Florida, I just found out I was going to be a Father. CNN was just getting started, I watched the explosion over and over again, I was in disbelief as we hadn't had a major problem in the Space program since Apollo 13. I moved from Titusville to college. My Family still lives there. My grandmother has lived within 3 miles of the gate to Kennedy Space Center since 1974

ryan

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at 15:35 on January 28th, 2008

BMCWrites, I like this story. Thank you for reminding us of this tragedy with your personal perspective.

olletsoc

at 16:28 on January 28th, 2008

Well I'm 30 now so 22 years ago that would make me 8 right? Well during lunch when I was in said grade, we all as a school went out to see the shuttle lift off, which was a common thing at that grade school on the beach in Indialanic, FL. Then halfway through the launch the tragedy happened. From what I remember, I new that that wasn't right, but I had no idea what was happening. Teachers were crying, I think that my teacher was friends with the teacher lady astronaut that perished. All the adults were crying and grieving. I can remember not understanding anything that was happening, why we were sent home early, why people were sad, and why there was a big red and grey ball of cloud in the sky. Then I got home and my father explained everything to me. Told me about the people in the shuttle who died, and why it happened. Then news kept showing it over and over. He turned it off and watched him get up, go to the kitchen and get a beer.

80 (not verified)

at 10:22 on July 29th, 2008

yes that would make you 8

melmashman

at 21:54 on January 28th, 2008

This was taken at Arlington Cemetary.
I remember when the accident happen.
It had been years since a death related to space exploration and it clearly illustrated that there are tremendous risks and no such thing as a routine space flight.
Mel Mashman

melmashman has contributed a photo to this story.

IchiKoko

at 23:51 on January 28th, 2008

Statue in Memory of the fateful day of the crash, though it is on the other side of the country, this statue is in Little Tokyo of LA in memory of the first Japanese American Astronaut.

IchiKoko has contributed a photo to this story.

alan.crabtree

at 07:49 on January 29th, 2008

I was on my way home from work, listening to the radio, when I heard about the explosion. I raced home, turned on the TV, and sat watching, and not believing what I was seeing. It is a day I will never forget. Every time they spoke of the first teacher in space, my heart broke.

alan.crabtree has contributed a photo to this story.

jroads

at 13:35 on January 29th, 2008

I remember clearly when this tragedy occurred, so when my partner and I visited Arlington National Cemetery two summers ago, this was one of the three memorials I felt the need to see while I was there.

jroads has contributed a photo to this story.

TracyJean

at 14:28 on January 29th, 2008

This is the second "I remember where I was when" of my life (first was the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan). I was in the 8th grade and I was in the school library, watching the launch while waiting for our chaperone to take a group of us to the board of education to film a knowledge competition. All of us just looked at each other, our stomachs suddenly in our throats. Because of the "Teacher In Space" program, the launch was big news and we all started rattling off stats about the flight, who was on it, the space program. I think the thing that stands out the most in my memory is how routine the flight had been up until that point then suddenly....

TracyJean has contributed a photo to this story.