27 years ago today...

[KC2UGV]

... the unthinkable happened:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9f/Challenger_explosion.jpg/250px-Challenger_explosion.jpg

7 people gave their lives for the furtherance of mankind's understanding of our universe.

This was the first thing I can recall being live on TV. We were watching in school when it occurred.

[X-Rated]

I was at work in the Big D. The guy in shipping listened to the newstalk radio all day long.

[N8YX]

I was at work in the Big D. The guy in shipping listened to the newstalk radio all day long.

Same here, in the big B (Barberton). About two blocks from my residence - I managed the service department of an appliance store and had the shop radio on when everything went to shit.

Judith Resnick was an area native.

[N2NH]

They showed the Shuttle from the NASA feed that morning on the news. I saw the ice covering everything and thought to myself, can it take off in weather that cold?

Apparently the crew gave their lives so that NASA could gain the understanding as to why cold weather launches are not a good idea.

Never forgot how shocked I was when I saw it on the news which broke into regular programming. That's how you can tell that it's really news. No wait until after the commercials, just "This just happened..."

[kb2vxa]

"7 people gave their lives for the furtherance of mankind's understanding of our universe."
No, 7 people gave their lives for the furtherance of Morton Thiokol's understanding of not to soothe NASA's doubts and those of their own engineers who knew darn well the O rings have thermal limitations.

"Apparently the crew gave their lives so that NASA could gain the understanding as to why cold weather launches are not a good idea."
What NASA learned is stop listening to Soviet go ahead, they're expendable mentality and go with that small voice saying safety first, wait for it to thaw.

I don't remember where I was but I saw it live on TV and didn't know what to thing, everything upstairs was in shock.

[NA4BH]

"7 people gave their lives for the furtherance of mankind's understanding of our universe."
No, 7 people gave their lives for the furtherance of Morton Thiokol's understanding of not to soothe NASA's doubts and those of their own engineers who knew darn well the O rings have thermal limitations.

"Apparently the crew gave their lives so that NASA could gain the understanding as to why cold weather launches are not a good idea."
What NASA learned is stop listening to Soviet go ahead, they're expendable mentality and go with that small voice saying safety first, wait for it to thaw.

I don't remember where I was but I saw it live on TV and didn't know what to thing, everything upstairs was in shock.

http://blogs.ocweekly.com/navelgazing/dave-hester-yuuup-cap_square.jpg

B-ZACTLY

[KC2UGV]

"7 people gave their lives for the furtherance of mankind's understanding of our universe."
No, 7 people gave their lives for the furtherance of Morton Thiokol's understanding of not to soothe NASA's doubts and those of their own engineers who knew darn well the O rings have thermal limitations.

"Apparently the crew gave their lives so that NASA could gain the understanding as to why cold weather launches are not a good idea."
What NASA learned is stop listening to Soviet go ahead, they're expendable mentality and go with that small voice saying safety first, wait for it to thaw.

I don't remember where I was but I saw it live on TV and didn't know what to thing, everything upstairs was in shock.

Thanks for shitting on that.

The astronauts on board, went into space, knowing full well the risk. And, they did so to further our understanding of space. Space exploration at that period in time was still in it's infancy (And still is). There were many unknowns, many "Category 1" risks to the shuttles, many known dangers. There were risks, and the shuttle crew understood, and accepted those risks, for science.

It's akin to saying Colombia's astronauts died to further GW's Goals of getting a few more runs from the STS program. Bull shit, and stupid.

[KC2UGV]

On another note, nearly forgot that on Sunday, 46 years ago, 3 astronauts gave their lives as well for the furtherance of mankind's exploration of the stars. Apollo I disaster, where all three crew members died when the capsule caught fire during unplug tests.

[n2ize]

On another note, nearly forgot that on Sunday, 46 years ago, 3 astronauts gave their lives as well for the furtherance of mankind's exploration of the stars. Apollo I disaster, where all three crew members died when the capsule caught fire during unplug tests.

I remember when that happened due to a fire in the capsule. I was a child then bbut I remember hearing the tragic news. One of the astronauts who died that day was Gus Grissom one of the original pioneers of the original Mercury project. I was very young child at the time but I do remember bits and pieces of the Mercury project when guys like Cooper,, Grissom, and Glen, flew into space alone taking very extreme and unknown risks every step of the way. If today space exploration is in its infancy then we can say it was in pre-infancy back in those days.

[KK4AMI]

That long ago already? I was a Captain in the USAF stationed at Patrick AFB in Florida. We were eating lunch at an Italian Restaurant in Cocoa Beach when somebody came running in and yelled "The Shuttle just blew up!" The whole restaurant cleared out into the parking lot to look up into the sky and see that debris cloud. I remember everybody just stood there quietly looking up into the sky. Even traffic stopped. Eventually everybody went back to their tables but it was still so quiet. My group went back to the office. I got assigned to an accident investigation detail that was looking into what a Security Guard heard a couple of NASA contractors say in the Flight Control Center. I still have a copy of the report I wrote along with a copy of the local paper I saved. I remember that Space flight was the life blood of every person on the "Space Coast" from waiters to astronauts, when that accident happened it was like a giant heart just stopped.

[NM5TF]

On another note, nearly forgot that on Sunday, 46 years ago, 3 astronauts gave their lives as well for the furtherance of mankind's exploration of the stars. Apollo I disaster, where all three crew members died when the capsule caught fire during unplug tests.

I was working at Rockwell Int'l at the time...not at Space Division tho....it was later discovered
the accident was caused by "someone" from Rockwell had dropped a socket into an inaccessabile
location and it was not recovered....it caused a short circuit & sparks that ignited the Oxygen
atmosphere inside the capsule...the crew never had a chance...there was lots of finger pointing
and several people lost their jobs, but NOT the Managers that made the decision to proceed
with the test knowing that the socket had not been found....

the only "good" that came from the accident was that NASA decided that maybe it wasn't a good
idea to have a 100% pure O2 atmosphere inside the capsule....

[KG4CGC]

I remember hearing about it on the radio and turning on the TV. Every channel was covering it. It was the same scene being played back over and over again.