Do you remember?

[UAHparrothead]

January 28, 1986

I was home sick from school watching on television. God speed Challenger.

[Wino you know]

I watched it live from my home in Honolulu, and all of Hawaii was abuzz because "our" favorite son, Elison Onizuka, age 39, was making his second space flight.
Just over a minute after the launch, there wasn't a dry eye in the entire state.
I also attended the services when Onizuka was buried at Punchbowl National Cemetery a few months later, and that had to be one of the toughest burials I've ever witnessed.

Rest in peace, mighty magnificent seven.

[Bob Roberts]

I remember watching it live on TV with my Mom. I was 4 years old and thought it was some kind of movie or something. Mom looked really scared and started to "panic" while she called my father at work. Definately a sad day in history.

[aeroparrot]

I was listening to this on the radio during Science class (8th grade). The teacher asked if we heard the news and some did. We listened to the news about it.

[SchoolGirlHeart]

Christa McAuliffe and I grew up in the same hometown. Her Mom still lives there.

I've always been struck be the diversity of the Challenger crew. In gender, ethnicity, religion, and simply walk of life, they were so different and yet represented all of us.

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 windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew -
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high untresspassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand and touched the face of God.

Pilot Officer Gillespie Magee
No 412 squadron, RCAF
Killed 11 December 1941

Rest in Peace.

[balcony girls]

. . a special prayer to our Heroes . . wishing peace to their friends and family . . .

[PalmTreeGal]

I was in 7th grade and we heard about it at lunchtime. We all went in to the library and watched the coverage live......what a sad day.

Peace and comfort to their families today......

[sonofabeach]

I remember watching it with my class outside down here in Florida and at first we did not even realize anything was wrong. Such a sad day.
Of the course to me the 28th is first and foremost my mom's birthday, which speaking of, I gots to give her a call!!!!

[PackPhanGirl]

I was coming back from class through my dorm lobby and several people were crowded around the tv watching...it was really sad. It was a big deal where I live because a teacher at a local high school was a finalist to go on the flight and I think they chose the other teacher instead...such a sad day..

[bravedave]

Blue skies, heroes.

[tikitatas]

My students and I were watching in our classroom . . . such silence I had never heard when we saw the shuttle break up. No one said anything. We were speechless and after what seemed like an interminable interval, the principal came on the PA to announce it. Canada has always felt invested in the explorations because of our own astronauts Roberta Bondar, Chris Hadfield, Robert Thirsk, Bjarni Tryggvason, Marc Garneau, Steve Maclean, Julie Payette and Dave Williams, and Canadarms I and II.

Sail on to all those who have given their lives that we may know more . . .

[SMLCHNG]

You bet I remember. Won't ever forget that moment. Rest in peace, astronauts.

[Elrod]

I was at my desk, watching the launch on a black & white television...

[ph4ever]

I was at work in downtown Dallas. There was a prayer vigal that afternoon at Thanksgiving Square in which a co-wowrker and I attended.

Dick Scobee is from Auburn. There's a mural at the post office honoring the Challenger Crew.

[carolinagirl]

I stayed at work through lunch to make some phone calls to plan my wedding later that year, and a couple ladies who took their lunch break down the hall were watching it on TV. They came back and told us, and we all went down to watch. It was uncomprehendable.

[freaky4tiki]

January 28, 1986

I was home sick from school watching on television. God speed Challenger.

me too. one of the most shocking moments of my life up until 9/11.

[job41475]

Me and the rest of my 5th grade class were in the library watching it on a TV since it McAuliffe was a teacher.....Very sad day...

[blackjacks wife]

I was a Senior in High School. I was in the lunch room and a friend came over and said "The Shuttle Blew Up" I will remember the words all my life. I thought he was kidding. It wasn't until I got home 3 hours later and my Dad was sitting on the couch tears streaming down his face did I find out that it wasn't a joke.

Dad spent the next few days explaining the "space race" to me and how far we had come as a nation in such a short period of time.

Now that Dad's gone, That is a time that I will never forget. It was a sad time for our nation but the quality time that it gave me with my Dad is a very special memory for me.

Sail on

[weirdo0521]

January 28, 1986

I was home sick from school watching on television. God speed Challenger.

Same here. Bears won Super Bowl XX on the 26th. I got sick on Monday night. I remember being in the bathroom tossing cookies when I could hear my Mom's reaction to what happened.

[Floridaze]

January 28, 1986

I was home sick from school watching on television. God speed Challenger.

Thanks for posting that...was working here at the Kennedy Space Center...and had to go through Columbia in 2003....Feb. 1st anniv. coming up....thoughts and prayers to friends and families....