# 1/28/1986 Challenger 33 years on **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 28, 2019, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-28-1986-challenger-33-years-on/828556 "2019-01-28T16:23:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2019, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-28-1986-challenger-33-years-on/828556/21 "2019-01-29T20:21:40Z")
I was a Navy Reservist at the time and one of the guys in my squadron worked at the Cape. One day shortly before Challenger launched, he came upon the entire crew and he got their autographs - on the only paper he had - a $1 bill. I wonder if he still has it, or if he donated it to a museum. ---
**Author:** ![Barrett\_Bonden](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/5e9695/32.png) [@Barrett\_Bonden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barrett_Bonden)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2019, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-28-1986-challenger-33-years-on/828556/22 "2019-01-29T21:33:22Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > Several years later, I read somewhere - and it was a reliable source - that the astronauts’ bodies were transported from one holding area to another in garbage cans in the back of a pickup truck. I cannot find this online, nor can I remember for the life of me where I read that, but I find it believable. ☹ That particular detail is included in this [story](http://www.lutins.org/nasa.html). ---
**Author:** ![Raza](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/raza/32/213_2.png) [@Raza](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raza)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2019, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-28-1986-challenger-33-years-on/828556/23 "2019-01-29T22:01:28Z")
I can tell you that at that time, security at the docks on the north side of Port Canaveral (the military part) was both very tight and, yet, very low-key in appearance; it was a different sort of security we usually provided. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2019, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-28-1986-challenger-33-years-on/828556/24 "2019-01-29T23:12:31Z")
> [@Barrett\_Bonden](#): > > That particular detail is included in this [story](http://www.lutins.org/nasa.html). TYVM. I’ve long wondered if I imagined it. Nope. I didn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2019, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-28-1986-challenger-33-years-on/828556/25 "2019-01-30T00:26:52Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > One of the most affecting editorial cartoons I ever saw was just the helmets of all seven astronauts, with their names listed underneath. The caption was a quote from Thucydides. > > "But the bravest are surely those with the clearest vision of what lies ahead, glory and danger alike. > > And yet notwithstanding, they go ahead." > > RIP. > > Regards, > Shodan I remember a cartoon that showed a pair of cupped hands, coming down from the clouds, with the shuttle cradled in them. ---
**Author:** ![WolfpackJeep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpackjeep/32/2921_2.png) [@WolfpackJeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WolfpackJeep)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2019, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-28-1986-challenger-33-years-on/828556/26 "2019-01-30T00:52:15Z")
> [@Barrett\_Bonden](#): > > That particular detail is included in this [story](http://www.lutins.org/nasa.html). Geez. ☹ I was just before school age when it happened; I’m not sure how I would have found out, but I remember riding with my mom by Dad’s workplace later that day and pointing out that the flag had been lowered for the astronauts. (The lobby of his workplace had a picture of _Challenger_ hanging in the lobby; Astronaut William Thornton had taken one of the company’s products on board for STS-51-B.) After the [NPR piece](https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/02/25/466555217/your-letters-helped-challenger-shuttle-engineer-shed-30-years-of-guilt) about the guilt carried by one of the Morton Thiokol engineers who tried to prevent the launch, the anniversary also makes me think about who and what was involved in giving the go-ahead. By the time I got to college, the Challenger Disaster was being taught not just as an engineering disaster, but also as a communication issue. ---
**Author:** ![Barrett\_Bonden](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/5e9695/32.png) [@Barrett\_Bonden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barrett_Bonden)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2019, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-28-1986-challenger-33-years-on/828556/27 "2019-01-30T01:14:15Z")
> [@WolfpackJeep](#): > > After the [NPR piece](https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/02/25/466555217/your-letters-helped-challenger-shuttle-engineer-shed-30-years-of-guilt) about the guilt carried by one of the Morton Thiokol engineers who tried to prevent the launch, the anniversary also makes me think about who and what was involved in giving the go-ahead. By the time I got to college, the Challenger Disaster was being taught not just as an engineering disaster, but also as a communication issue. While I agree that engineers should value communication skills, using the Challenger Disaster as an example of a communication failure rubs me the wrong way. The Morton Thiokol managers, including the Vice President of Engineering, understood what their engineers were telling them. They just didn’t like the message. During the Congressional investigation, one of the managers tried to portray the decision room as “evenly divided” but admitted under closer questioning that the O ring experts who were present were unanimously against the launch. (But when you add in the votes of the non-experts, “evenly divided.”) We can observe similar reactions now when scientific experts explain various aspects of global warming. ---
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2019, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-28-1986-challenger-33-years-on/828556/28 "2019-01-30T03:40:18Z")
I remember the day of the Challenger disaster. I was a high school senior at the time, and didn’t make a point of watching the launch on TV because they were so routine by that time. I was actually eating lunch with a friend when an excitable freshman told us about the disaster. We though he was either confused or kidding, and made fun of him. Turns out he was right. ☹ I didn’t get home until late (probably due to swim practice), and didn’t watch the news when I got home. For that reason I missed the endless loop of the video of the explosion that played around the clock for days after the accident. After a few days, though, they stopped showing it. I actually didn’t see the video of the breakup until many years later. Many years later still, I visited the memorial at Arlington. ---
**Author:** ![Bear\_Nenno](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bear_nenno/32/3358_2.png) [@Bear\_Nenno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bear_Nenno)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2019, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-28-1986-challenger-33-years-on/828556/29 "2019-01-31T14:20:00Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > On a sort of side note, it’s fascinating, looking online at all the remembrances of the disaster, what a remarkably large number of people claim to have seen it live - which of course isn’t possible. One might have seen it live if they were at school, or among the still few households with CNN if they were home watching on a workday, but most people were not/did not, and it wasn’t run live on any major network. I would guess that out of every twenty people who claim to have watched it live, 19 did not. > > That’s not because people are dishonest, it’s because memories like that just aren’t reliable over time. The disaster was run a billion times on TV afterwards, and in time, your brain decides you saw it live. I have no doubt that many (even as high as 19/20) probably did not actually watch it live. But I do know that it was shown live in my school at the time. That’s probably how most people saw it live. I actually watched the count-down and lift-off live on the tv, and then we ran outside to watch it in person. It was a clear day in Florida, making the launch visible from as far away as the west coat. The fire and smoke from the explosion was quite clear, though we didn’t know what actually happened until we went back inside. I still vividly remember my teacher saying, “See that? That’s the boosters separating!” She wasn’t wrong. ---
**Author:** ![JB99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/439d5e/32.png) [@JB99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JB99)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2019, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-28-1986-challenger-33-years-on/828556/30 "2019-01-31T14:22:23Z")
Richard Feynman’s report is fascinating reading. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2019, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-28-1986-challenger-33-years-on/828556/31 "2019-01-31T15:40:04Z")
And 1/27/67 52 years on. Virgil I. “Gus” Grissom Edward H. White II Roger B. Chaffee ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2019, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-28-1986-challenger-33-years-on/828556/32 "2019-01-31T18:16:20Z")
I was denied the opportunity to witness it live. The middle school that I was attending at the time had a television set up in the cafeteria, but lunch periods were staggered and my lunch group happened to still be in class when everything went down. Maybe it wasn’t such a terrible thing at the time for my impressionable brain to have missed out on the tragedy, but decades later, I do feel just a little cheated. Come to think of it, I was kind of late on the draw learning about Kurt Cobain’s suicide AND the terrorist attacks of 9/11. I don’t seem to have a whole lot of luck when it comes to the defining moments of my generation. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2019, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-28-1986-challenger-33-years-on/828556/33 "2019-01-31T19:55:55Z")
> [@Barrett\_Bonden](#): > > That particular detail is included in this [story](http://www.lutins.org/nasa.html). Good God. I knew NASA’s reputation had been damaged by their conduct before the Challenger was lost, but this paints an awful picture of their post-disaster conduct as well. Disorganized, dishonest, and far more concerned with protecting their image (or funding, I suppose) than dealing with the brutal truth about the risks of space flight and the horrifying consequences when things do go wrong. So much so that they really did load human remains into garbage cans to hide the truth from the press and from the local medical examiner who was legally required to perform autopsies. Feynman summed up matters nicely at the end of [his report:](https://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/missions/51-l/docs/rogers-commission/Appendix-F.txt) > [@Richard Feynman](#): > > NASA owes it to the citizens from whom it asks support to be frank, honest, and informative, so that these citizens can make the wisest decisions for the use of their limited resources. It would seem they failed to do this before _and_ after the Challenger was lost. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![road\_lobo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d78d45/32.png) [@road\_lobo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/road_lobo)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2019, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-28-1986-challenger-33-years-on/828556/34 "2019-02-02T21:24:47Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > I remember a cartoon that showed a pair of cupped hands, coming down from the clouds, with the shuttle cradled in them. There’s a cartoon depicting this, but it’s about Columbia. [http://www.susannataliefreeman.com/ColumbiaEditorial/ClearedForLanding.gif](http://www.susannataliefreeman.com/ColumbiaEditorial/ClearedForLanding.gif) There’s a similar cartoon with Columbia held on the palm of a single large hand. You can see it in [this gallery of editorial cartoons about Colombia](http://www.susannataliefreeman.com/ColumbiaEditorial/ColumbiaEditorial.html) collected by an astronaut. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2019, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-28-1986-challenger-33-years-on/828556/35 "2019-02-03T00:19:26Z")
> [@Barrett\_Bonden](#): > > That particular detail is included in this [story](http://www.lutins.org/nasa.html). Thank you for posting that. Very disturbing but necessary to know. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2019, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-28-1986-challenger-33-years-on/828556/36 "2019-02-03T00:33:10Z")
> [@road\_lobo](#): > > There’s a cartoon depicting this, but it’s about Columbia. > > [http://www.susannataliefreeman.com/ColumbiaEditorial/ClearedForLanding.gif](http://www.susannataliefreeman.com/ColumbiaEditorial/ClearedForLanding.gif) > > There’s a similar cartoon with Columbia held on the palm of a single large hand. You can see it in > [this gallery of editorial cartoons about Colombia](http://www.susannataliefreeman.com/ColumbiaEditorial/ColumbiaEditorial.html) collected by an astronaut. Perhaps I misrember the illustration, and I do not have a link to what I do remember. Those two links do not conform to what I saw, but I could very well be in error. Thank you for those links though, those cartoons are moving. ---
**Author:** ![Tarataratara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Tarataratara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tarataratara)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2019, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-28-1986-challenger-33-years-on/828556/37 "2019-02-03T02:28:08Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Raising a glass to Ron McNair. to all of them, actually, but the others tend to get lost in all the fanfare about McAuliffe. Ron gets special recognition from me because I knew him, and co-authored two papers with him. when I heard the news on the shuttle “crash” (as they were reporting it) that morning on my car radio on my way in to the University, I was devastated. A very sweet and moving video about Ronald McNair. I am sorry for the loss of your friend.: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/0lLf6qakrTw/maxresdefault.jpg "How It All Began For Ronald McNair, the Astronaut!") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lLf6qakrTw) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-28-1986-challenger-33-years-on/828556.md?page=1)