Remembering the Challenger

[CathyCA]

Do you remember where you were twenty-five years ago?

I was in the file room in the Development Office at Wake Forest University. I was in my second year of law school, and I had a part time job working with the fundraising element for the law school. On that day, we were working on putting together a dinner for the law fund donors.

My brother was president of the student body at Wake Forest. He had an office in the same building where I was working, Reynolda Hall. (By way of background, my brother always had a fascination with space travel. When we were little, he and my dad used to build model rockets and launch them. Our folks took us to the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral when we were in elementary school.)

It was just before lunch time. I clearly remember my brother running around the corner into the Development Office and in a shaky voice, he uttered the most unbelievable statement: "The space shuttle exploded." Exploded? How can that be? "Come with me," he said, and we went running downstairs to the television in one of the commons areas. We watched the news coverage. It was truly unbelievable.

Our space program was supposed to be so safe. How could this happen? Didn't we learn from the Apollo disaster? How could this happen? Weren't we THE superpower with regard to space exploration? How could this happen? Space launches were so routine. How could this happen? We didn't expect this. How could this happen?

Where were you on January 28, 1986?

[Very Duke Blue]

I was at work. It was around lunch time. I walked into the break room, it had just happened. What a horror to watch.

[lawgrad91]

I was a sophomore in college, in Virginia Beach. I had class that morning, and went to the snack bar to get lunch. When I walked in, everyone in the snack bar looked shell shocked. I asked the lady behind the counter what was the matter, and she couldn't tell me. She pointed toward the lounge, where there were a bunch of students gathered around the TV, all looking stunned.

I had read about Virgil Grissom and the astronauts who had been killed, but I thought by then space travel was perfectly safe.

[ArkieDukie]

I was a sophomore in college, too, but in Conway, AR. There was a large screen TV in the student center that had been rented for a Super Bowl party. I was watching the launch with a group of friends and saw the explosion live. We kept hoping against hope that the astronauts would be found and they'd be okay.

[OZZIE4DUKE]

I was in the State Dept. of Revenue office in Smithfield inquiring about getting a resale license/tax number when one of the men said the shuttle just blew up. I left and went home to turn on the television (I live about a mile and a half from that office).

I too flew Estes model rockets as a kid. I grew up with Project Mercury - I was glued to the television for hours watching each manned launch - which were typically delayed for hours and sometimes days due to both weather and technical delays. John Glenn's first orbital flight, Friendship 7, flew on February 20, 1962 which is memorable because it is both my mother's birthday and my "second best friend's" birthday, whose house we were at to watch the launch, because he was having his (8th) birthday party. Oh, February 20th will also be memorable for all of us because that it the day the Kyrie will return to action for Duke next month!

I used to be able to name all the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo astronauts, but those days are long gone. I watched Apollo 16 launch at Cape Kennedy, as well as a Shuttle launch in 1994. And I went to Space Camp with OzzieDaughter in 1993 for a parent/child weekend program - that was, as they say, a blast! I got to fly the orbiter (shuttle) simulator!

[CameronBornAndBred]

I was in 10th grade at Durham Academy. Some kid walked up and told me the shuttle blew up, I thought he was full of shit. Then I went into the library and watched the news...I was always a huge space buff, and had been really excited about Christa McAuliffe going up as the first civilian.
I wasn't a big fan of Reagan back then, but I will always remember the way he spoke the "touched the face of God" quote from John Gillespie Magee's poem.

High Flight
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air....
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace.
Where never lark or even eagle flew —
And, while with silent lifting mind I’ve trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

[captmojo]

I can't honestly say I remember with surety.

That's sort of like paying to submit an answer of 'not sure' in a text messaging poll question.

[Miles]

I was in third grade at John Adams Elementary School in Alexandria, VA. We were all in the school library watching it live. It was quite a profound experience to see some of our teachers collapse onto the floor, or break down crying. I hated that day.