I saw the Challenger disaster right after the explosion. In my Senior year at Florida Institute of Technology, I heard about the explosion on the radio. Just pulling out of the University parking lot. I got out of the car and looked up. That large bloom from the explosion and the two solid fuel rockets going off in different directions, then the pieces of Challenger falling are still burned in my memory over 38 years latter.
When I found out they lived through explosion more than likely. The long fall to the ground knowing you and your teammates were going to expire I can’t even imagine. The Astronauts after that mission were incredibly brave. Knowing that could happen.
Knowing first hand, every launch had o-ring blowouts, this one happened to blow toward the main fuel tank. I was watching the launch while having coffee. As soon as I saw what happened, I knew it was catastrophic. I am still haunted with the image. May the crew rest in peace.
What’s really sad is that the crew had turned on their emergency oxygen and were alive until they hit the water a friend of the pilot said he had no Doubt that he was trying to fly that wingless bird till the end
The question is.... How many people lost their jobs, due to their incompetence and negligence, and how many people were charged with criminal negligence??? Nobody, justice wasnt served in this case!
I had started college in August 1985 and was at my college's library when my sister came running from her class. We had this wall of glass and i thought she was going to break the glass. She was crying. She didnt come in to the library. The glass was thick but not thick enough that i couldnt hear. We all were rooting for the teacher. They say you never forget where you were when tragedy strikes. I can still see my sister crying and the wall of glass between us.
NASA was its own worst enemy in the challenger loss and later the Columbia. The seals would hold and no, the foam couldn’t damage the wing. Well, the o-rings did fail and foam punched a hole in the Columbia’s wing. I’d like to think that NASA would have discovered the damage to Columbia in the first days of flight and had an Apollo 13 type finest hour. Unfortunately it was not to be. I still blame NASA’s management. Enough, off my soap box.
Old NASA ( Post Apollo 1) used to listen to engineers, testing things over and over. Until they were happy. Sometimes they wore stuff out testing, but they didn't make unforced errors. Then the accountants took over. Now NASA runs a pretty good museum to greatness and thats about it. Its sad to see its decline and in such a short time.
So very sad that those 7 people could still be alive today with their family and friends had done what they should have done, scrubbed the mission until the O-rings were manufactured correctly. 😢😢😢😢😢😢😢❤
Like the assassination of JFK and the attack on the twin towers, many Americans know exactly where they were and what they were doing, when this tragedy occurred.
it was also the coldest January in southern England because our entire staff of gas fitters had arranged work cancelled & all were put on standby to deal with freeze-ups of water systems in roof spaces.
The shuttle ejection system was not installed due to cost. Could the shuttle have ejected at the first sign of trouble? That is a forever unanswered question. 7 innocent PEOPLE lost their lives because of a few thousand dollars. ☹️
The whole world witnessed this useless tragedy, including many school children. Expediency replaced logic and the regard for human life. Perhaps that is the real reason for this incredible loss.
On the internet there are people who show remarkable videos of all of the Challenger twins even down to their names and occupations. Pretty clear and convincing evidence that they are all still alive.
Both shuttle disasters should be reviewed in significant detail to prevent similar faulty management details that are not currently in practice. 🙈🙉🙊😎🇺🇲
It's pretty funny every single one of them are still alive today but they were supposed to have died in that Challenger accident nobody died in that they're all still alive and it's been proven pictures and everything where they work Christa McAuliffe is a professor at a college somewhere right now that's straight facts no bulshit every single one of them except for one of them is still alive today and it still using the same names she's just gone by Sharon instead of Krista now she's using her first name like she never used to she always went by Krista which is her second name but she's using her first name now every one of them is alive they did not die in that freaking Challenger accident it's b*******what you saw blow up was a helium balloon just like everything else that they freaking launch it's all helium balloons they're lying to us everything NASA does and says is a lie
