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32 years ago today

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I remember exactly where I was when I heard the news. I was a 2LT sitting in my office in the Radar Eval Squadron at Hill AFB, UT when Lt Richardson came in and said, "did you hear about the Shuttle?"
 
Grim but not unexpected. True heroes, pushing the envelope for the rest of us.
 
Remember it well and still can not watch the video. :sorrow:
 
Actually saw it from a video store parking lot here, and too many replays on th' tellie, later.

elrey said:
Grim but not unexpected. True heroes, pushing the envelope for the rest of us.
Click to expand...

So very true.
 
I spent the first few months of '79 working on a computer related contract at the Johnson Space Center then the rest of the year at home part time. Part of that was installing a programming language to be used by the team working on the environment and life support systems for the shuttle.
 
I remember the bizarre smoke plume well. When we heard the news, a neighbor let us borrow their TV to stay on top of the developments. My dad was involved with the shuttle program, in the sense that he as an astrophysicist and involved with some experiments. (Spacelab II, which was on the second to last successful Challenger flight.) Remember the day well.

Brave souls, all astronauts.
 
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I remember watching it in class.
 
I was at work and not watching the launch. But a lot of folks had snuck TV's into the plant to watch. I noticed everybody walking around with dazed looks. Then somebody told me the news.

While not on the program myself, our company was the contractor for the primary payload on the mission. We all felt close to it and some of our people had worked closely with the crew.

We all felt devastated. But we also all felt a sense of resolve to keep moving forward. I think any one of us would have volunteered to go up the next day if we had been asked.


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