Ten years since Columbia, 27 years since Challenger

[Andromeda]

Where were you when the diasters occurred?  What are your memories?

I don't remember Challenger, I was too young.  However, I have watched plenty of documentaries about it. I think it was Roger Boisjoly who I saw cry when interviewed, and my heart broke for him.

I am shocked that a decade has passed since the Columbia accident.  I was at university (undergrad) at the time and the issue of New Scientist that was lying around that week had a big spread about the mission.  I had been out all day and didn't hear the news until late at night, on the radio in the taxi home.  I asked, "Is this real?".  I couldn't believe it.  The images afterwards of debris and remains were heartbreaking.

[Andromeda]

Pictures from NASA's Day of Remembrance: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nasahqphoto/sets/72157632661941855/ 

[LunarOrbit]

For Challenger I was in Grade 5 and was heading home for my lunch break when a crossing guard told me and my friend about the accident.

I still remember watching the explosion over and over again on TV, and the televised address by Ronald Reagan. It's the first experience I had with a major tragedy like that.

I remember following the whole "teacher in space" story before the accident.

For Columbia I was getting ready for work and decided to tune in to NASA TV to see the landing before leaving. I heard someone say something about a "contingency plan" and thought that didn't sound good, but maybe they had scrubbed the landing or had decided to land at Edwards. But it wasn't long before there were TV reports of debris trails over Texas.

[gillianren]

You're both younger than I am?  I was in third grade!  Man, I have officially reached the age where I have to stop assuming that people with, like, real jobs and lives and things are older than I am!

Ahem.

For Challenger, I was in third grade.  I wasn't in class at the moment, though I don't now know why.  I was in the hallways, presumably on some errand or another.  The woman who had been the teacher's aide in my second-grade class stopped me and asked if I'd heard.  This was a California school; we didn't have televisions in the classrooms, and even if we had, the disaster was something like eight minutes after school started in the morning, and we wouldn't have been watching.  I'm not sure how she knew.  However, she saw me and told me.

I was stunned.  I remember waking up very early the morning of the first-ever launch, and while I was not huge into the space program, not by the standards here, I was thrilled that we had one.  The idea of the space program was always more interesting to me than the space program itself, I think, and even at that age, it was pretty clear that this meant we weren't going to have one for a while.  And of course, while I didn't personally know people whose jobs depended on NASA, I was well aware they existed--whenever we leave LA going north, we pass JPL.

For Columbia, I was on my way to work at my awful, dead-end job.  I was about ninety percent sure that there would be no one there who would care/be willing to talk to me about it.  A few people were, but for the most part, my coworkers tended to be more interested in whatever movie was coming out or whatever celebrities were getting married/divorced/pregnant/whatever.  I was also concerned that, once again, we would stop having a space program for far too long because of it.

[Echnaton]

For Challenger, I was at work at a small electronics company I was part owner of.  One of the guys had a radio on and heard it first.  The  Houston station had their own reporter at KSC covering the launch .  We all gathered around and listed as the broadcast went from live reporting to a replay of her commentary describing  the launch and short flight.  What I remember clearly was the break in her voice when it became obvious there had been an accident, followed by a short description of what she saw.  Then came the official notice that Challenger had been destroyed at which point she was audibly sobbing.  That commentary was repeated every five to ten minutes for a long while.  I also watched the memorial service with Ronald Reagan giving the eulogy at the JSC a few days later.  Very moving and healing. 

For Columbia, it was early Saturday morning. I been up for a while, sitting at my desk drinking coffee and reading something other than the a web news site.  My wife got up, opened CNN.com and told me Columbia was missing.  I fired up Windows Media Player to watch CNN and followed the story.  My particular memory of the disaster was watching a weather radar image that showed the breakup debris spreading out over East Texas and Western Louisiana.  When I go back packing in East Texas, I still wonder if I might find some debris in the woods.  There surely must be some identifiable wreckage left on the ground.   

[darren r]

For Challenger, I'd been out all day and didn't know it had happened. I knew there had been a shuttle launch and I always liked to watch them so I turned on the Channel 4 evening news to see if they were reporting on it. By chance, they were showing a recording of the launch without any commentary so I sat, cross-legged on the floor like a kid (I was 20!), in front of the TV with a big grin on my face. When the Challenger blew up I was staggered. I'd had no advance warning so it was as if I was watching it live.

I first heard about Columbia when I arrived at my job to do the evening shift and my boss told me she'd heard something on the radio. The early reports were very vague and I refused to believe that it could have happened again. We didn't have a radio or TV in the store so I had to ask customers and other staff as they came in what the latest news was. Not a good night.

[Chew]

I was on a sub in the middle of the Pacific, we had just come up to periscope depth and the radioman of the watch read the news and announced the Challenger blew up on launch.
 
I heard the first shuttle joke the next day.

[smartcooky]

In really is one of those events that you will always remember exactly where you were when you heard the news; the Kennedy assassinations, Neil Armstrong on the moon, and of course 9/11

I was at RNZAF Te Rapa, near Hamilton, playing cricket (RNZAF Inter-base competititon) when I first heard the news.

As we walked into the cafeteria for lunch, one of the staff asked if we had heard that the shuttle crashed. Initially, we were confused because in Air Force parlance, "the shuttle" is actually a regular flight that goes from base to base every day, usually a C-130 or in those days, an Andover. When we asked where it had crashed, the guy said, "in America, where else?"

[Donnie B.]

You young whippersnappers, get off my lawn!

I was at work for Columbia.  The first report was garbled, it came third-hand from a phone call from someone's spouse, and went "The space shuttle blew up on the pad!"  No way, I thought.  We had a television and immediately turned it on.  At first all we heard was commentary in very serious tones and it was obvious that something bad had happened, but I was still hopeful that somehow the crew had survived.  Then came a replay of the launch.  I remember saying, as the fireball bloomed, "Oh, they're dead."  It was a terrible feeling.  I still can't watch that piece of video.  Too painful.

Challenger was similar.  I did see much of that in real time, and again was hopeful that it wasn't as bad as it seemed.  I lost hope when I saw the multiple vapor trails over Texas.

Slightly odd that both disasters resulted in seven casualties.  What percentage of shuttle missions has 7-person crews?

[Not Myself]

You young whippersnappers, get off my lawn!

I was at work for Columbia.  The first report was garbled, it came third-hand from a phone call from someone's spouse, and went "The space shuttle blew up on the pad!"  No way, I thought.  We had a television and immediately turned it on.  At first all we heard was commentary in very serious tones and it was obvious that something bad had happened, but I was still hopeful that somehow the crew had survived.  Then came a replay of the launch.  I remember saying, as the fireball bloomed, "Oh, they're dead."  It was a terrible feeling.  I still can't watch that piece of video.  Too painful.

Challenger was similar.  I did see much of that in real time, and again was hopeful that it wasn't as bad as it seemed.  I lost hope when I saw the multiple vapor trails over Texas.

Slightly odd that both disasters resulted in seven casualties.  What percentage of shuttle missions has 7-person crews?

I think you got your disasters mixed up.

[smartcooky]

[Ranb]

In 1986 I was on board the USS Tautog (submarine) entering Australia.  The Captain announced the bad news to the crew on the MC circuit and I was a bit stunned.  When I was walking around Perth I saw nearly every newspaper box with the awful tank explosion and smoke trails of the boosters.  When I conversed with the locals and they heard my accent, it was not uncommon for them to offer their condolences.

It took a few weeks to hear the first shuttle jokes.  What does NASA stand for.....  What color were her eyes....  They were groaners for sure.

In 2003 I woke up and turned on the computer to surf on my phone line, no cable tv and only Fox 13 for me back then.  I saw the CNN.com headline and rushed over to a neighbor's house to watch the news.  It sucked just as bad the second time around.

Ranb

[Chew]

For Columbia, I was driving to the store and heard on the radio the shuttle was overdue for landing. I didn't bother turning around to go home to check the TV because I knew what it meant. You either come out of re-entry on time or you don't come out (13 notwithstanding).

[BazBear]

Where were you when the diasters occurred?  What are your memories?

When the Challenger disaster occurred, I was sleeping, and my best friend came over and woke me up. I got up, turned on CNN, and watched the replay in shock.

I was at work when Columbia broke up during re-entry, and found out about it from my stepdad as soon as I got home. In the days previous to the accident I had read about the concerns regarding the foam strike during launch (and about foam strikes being a reoccurring problem), and became quite angry at NASA for ignoring yet another serious problem that had cost a crew their lives. Of course I wasn't sure that was the cause at that point, but my educated gut feeling and anger turned out to be warranted.

[gillianren]

Okay, I've realized now that LO is, indeed, older than I am.  By a whopping two years.  I feel somewhat less old now, though my doctor reminding me that I am considered "of advanced age" in my appointment this afternoon didn't help.