30 years ago today one of the low points in space exploration happened. I was sitting on the carpet in Kindergarten at Cary Elementary watching the Challenger take off. Then the explosion happened.

Is anyone else on here old enough to remember it happening?

1/28/2016 6:59:00 PM

Yes, we were at home for a snow day and watched the launch. I remember knowing something was wrong but not realizing the extent until I saw my mom's expression.

1/28/2016 7:42:50 PM

No, I was like 8 months old you old fucks.

1/28/2016 7:49:47 PM

I too, was sitting on the carpet in kindergarten.

1/28/2016 8:27:10 PM

^^

1/28/2016 8:44:54 PM

watched the launch and our fuckstick of a teacher turned it off as soon as she saw something was wrong and didn't tell us anything bad had happened. deprived all of us of a damn huge memory. fuck you ms. johnson.

parents picked me up and asked if i saw the launch... i said yeah it was cool! they thought i was a fucked up 6 year old.

[Edited on January 28, 2016 at 9:53 PM. Reason : ]

1/28/2016 9:50:58 PM

Quote :

"No, I was like 5 8 months old you old fucks."

[Edited on January 28, 2016 at 10:09 PM. Reason : ]

1/28/2016 10:09:07 PM

i remember the Need Another Seven Astronauts joke

1/28/2016 10:49:47 PM

I, too, was in Kindergarten

1/28/2016 11:19:10 PM

I was only 2.5 yrs old (and in England) so I didn't watch. I have seen the footage many times at work though. We have framed pictures of the crew (as well as the Apollo 1 and Columbia crew) in my building as a reminder of what happens when you get too complacent.

1/29/2016 10:22:19 AM

Quote :

"watched the launch and our fuckstick of a teacher turned it off as soon as she saw something was wrong and didn't tell us anything bad had happened. deprived all of us of a damn huge memory. fuck you ms. johnson."

this happened to me on 9/11. and it was my damn American History teacher, of all subjects, that turned it off.

1/29/2016 10:31:23 AM

^^I'm sure I could find some in-depth articles that detail how, but I've always wondered how they determined that it was an o-ring failure that caused the explosion.

Do you know/have the tl/dr version? Because I doubt they were able to recover enough debris to put everything back together to do analysis.

1/29/2016 11:16:33 AM

I remember hearing about it on the news when my parents were watching but thats about it. I remember the Columbia incident much more obviously.

1/29/2016 11:21:53 AM

^^There are lots of books about it. I was in an engineering ethics class at State where we read several of the books, watched some videos about it and had to write a paper. I don't remember much, but seem to recall that it was known prior to the launch that the O-rings could be an issue, particularly because of the temperature during the launch. Or something like that.

(we also talked about the exploding Ford Pintos and the dam break in Georgia)

[Edited on January 29, 2016 at 11:24 AM. Reason : ]

1/29/2016 11:23:48 AM

http://gawker.com/thirty-years-ago-the-challenger-crew-plunged-alive-and-1755727930

Linked in that story is the report:
http://www.lutins.org/nasa.html

1/29/2016 11:29:32 AM

gnsp

1/29/2016 11:39:38 AM

I mean I get why they might not want to be broadcasting that to the public right after a tragedy, but regardless the questions would either be could you have put things in place to save lives, or if that had happened were there things in place to possibly save their lives. May as well have been truthful in the official report and learned from the mistakes.

1/29/2016 11:47:29 AM

From what I have heard it sounds like they knew it wasn't a good idea to take off, but there was a lot of political pressure to get that teacher into space, so they took a risk and failed.

[Edited on January 29, 2016 at 12:52 PM. Reason : .]

1/29/2016 12:50:40 PM

Quote :

"this happened to me on 9/11. and it was my damn American History teacher, of all subjects, that turned it off."

So you do or do not have an irrational fear of every muslim on the planet?

1/29/2016 2:16:05 PM

1/29/2016 2:22:09 PM

Quote :

"http://gawker.com/thirty-years-ago-the-challenger-crew-plunged-alive-and-1755727930 Linked in that story is the report: http://www.lutins.org/nasa.html"

Quote :

"It also included an astronaut’s helmet, largely intact, containing ears and scalp."

[Edited on January 29, 2016 at 7:01 PM. Reason : .]

1/29/2016 7:00:41 PM