# 1/28/86 - Lest We Forget
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-28-86-lest-we-forget/744505
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [January 28, 2016, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-28-86-lest-we-forget/744505 "2016-01-28T16:52:03Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2016, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-28-86-lest-we-forget/744505/1 "2016-01-28T16:52:03Z")
Scobee
McNair
McAuliffe
Onizuka
Resnick
Jarvis
Smith
30 years.
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### Author:  [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2016, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-28-86-lest-we-forget/744505/2 "2016-01-28T17:22:10Z")
30 years, wow.
> [@](#):
>
> The crew of the space shuttle Challenger honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives. We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for the journey and waved goodbye and “slipped the surly bonds of earth” to “touch the face of God.”
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### Author:  [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2016, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-28-86-lest-we-forget/744505/3 "2016-01-28T17:25:58Z")
That scene is burned into my brain, almost literally. I was home sick with a very high fever, actually having occasional hallucinations, when I saw the tragedy on television. At first I thought it was another horrible waking dream, but I couldn’t fucking wake up.
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### Author:  [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2016, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-28-86-lest-we-forget/744505/4 "2016-01-28T17:37:54Z")
I never actually saw it until some months later. I was in a student apartment and we didn’t have a tv.
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### Author:  [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2016, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-28-86-lest-we-forget/744505/5 "2016-01-28T17:49:49Z")
I was shopping in a K-mart store at the time. Everyone, customers and employees alike, were gathered in the appliance department watching the TV coverage.
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### Author:  [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2016, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-28-86-lest-we-forget/744505/6 "2016-01-28T17:50:28Z")
I was working an evening shift and was at the laundromat at the mall. After putting my clothes into the dryer I went into a department store to see a wall of TVs all tuned to the same thing.
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### Author:  [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2016, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-28-86-lest-we-forget/744505/7 "2016-01-28T17:59:43Z")
~120 Americans died in car crashes that day. Tragic.
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### Author:  [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2016, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-28-86-lest-we-forget/744505/8 "2016-01-28T18:00:13Z")
Christa McAuliffe: “I touch the future. I teach.”
> **[Challenger disaster: Teacher Christa McAuliffe's former students go on to teach](https://www.ctvnews.ca/sci-tech/challenger-disaster-teacher-christa-mcauliffe-s-former-students-go-on-to-teach-1.2754055)**
>
> Thirty years after the Concord High School class of '86 watched social studies teacher Christa McAuliffe and six astronauts perish when the space shuttle Challenger exploded on live TV, a number of them have gone into teaching -- and some wonder if,...
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### Author:  [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2016, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-28-86-lest-we-forget/744505/9 "2016-01-28T18:11:19Z")
> [@Thucydides](#):
>
> The bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet notwithstanding, go out to meet it.
Regards,
Shodan
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### Author:  [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2016, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-28-86-lest-we-forget/744505/10 "2016-01-28T18:21:28Z")
**RTFirefly** This is a memorial thread for those who died in the Challenger crash. You’re free to open a thread memorializing those who died in car crashes that day if it’s that sincerely meaningful to you, but keep it out of this thread.
> [@RTFirefly](#):
>
> ~120 Americans died in car crashes that day. Tragic.
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### Author:  [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2016, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-28-86-lest-we-forget/744505/11 "2016-01-28T18:24:46Z")
I was in chemistry class and a friend came running in to tell us. He was getting ready for class and turned the TV on. Seeing a space shuttle lift off he decided to wait a minute to watch and saw it.
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### Author:  [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2016, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-28-86-lest-we-forget/744505/12 "2016-01-28T18:24:55Z")
I was a new engineer at NAS Jacksonville, and by that time, shuttle launches were so ho-hum, I was playing cards with some coworkers during lunch while some other coworkers were out on the roof of our building to see if they could spot the launch. Then all of a sudden, we were all out on the roof trying to make sense of the trails in the sky. It was a sobering day.
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### Author:  [@Isilder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isilder)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2016, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-28-86-lest-we-forget/744505/13 "2016-01-28T18:30:14Z")
> **[Space Shuttle Challenger disaster](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Challenger_disaster)**
>
> On January 28, 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart 73 seconds into its flight, killing all seven crew members aboard. The spacecraft disintegrated 46,000 feet (14 km) above the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 11:39 a.m. EST (16:39 UTC). It was the first fatal accident involving an American spacecraft while in flight.
> The mission, designated STS-51-L, was the tenth flight for the orbiter and the twenty-fifth flight of the Space Shuttle fleet. The crew ...
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### Author:  [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2016, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-28-86-lest-we-forget/744505/14 "2016-01-28T18:32:20Z")
I saw the endless repeats on the news that morning as I was getting ready for classes. Somehow I made it to school, where my advisor saw me and told me to take the next couple of days off classes.
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### Author:  [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2016, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-28-86-lest-we-forget/744505/15 "2016-01-28T18:32:45Z")
Thank you for starting the thread. It is right that we remember and memorialize the people and the event.
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### Author:  [@racer72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racer72)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2016, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-28-86-lest-we-forget/744505/16 "2016-01-28T18:51:35Z")
I live near Dick Scobee Elementary School in Auburn, Washington. I’m reminded of the disaster every time I drive by the school. There is a sign with a shuttle circling the earth on the front of the school.
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2016, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-28-86-lest-we-forget/744505/17 "2016-01-28T18:56:34Z")
One day I really have to visit the Ron McNair Memorial in Lake City, SC.
> **[Dr. Ronald E. McNair Memorial](https://discoversouthcarolina.com/products/26303)**
>
> This memorial is the burial place of Dr. Ronald E. McNair, a Lake City native and NASA astronaut who perished aboard the space shuttle Challenger when it exploded Jan. 28, 1986, seconds after launch from Cape Kennedy, Fla., killing all seven crew...
I’ve been to the Christa McAuliffe Planetarium (now the McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center, honoring Alan Shepard as well) in Concord, MA often enough.
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### Author:  [@fachverwirrt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fachverwirrt)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2016, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-28-86-lest-we-forget/744505/18 "2016-01-28T19:01:08Z")
Grew up 20 minutes from Concord. The excitement about Christa McAuliffe was huge. Everyone was amped up, and every school child was glued to the TV. After the accident, nobody really knew what to do. They sent us outside for an unscheduled recess while they discussed it. Ultimately they decided to just bring us back to continue to watch the coverage.
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### Author:  [@That\_Don\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/That_Don_Guy)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2016, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-28-86-lest-we-forget/744505/19 "2016-01-28T19:14:38Z")
That night, the high school at which I was the varsity basketball PA announcer had a home game, and the athletic director asked me to call for a moment of silence before the game began. I figured he’d do this, and my response was, “Sure, but, given that one of the dead was a teacher, wouldn’t it be more appropriate for a teacher to do it?” (In the end, a faculty administrator did it.)
Whenever I go to Washington DC, one of the things I always do is to go to the Challenger (now Challenger & Columbia) Memorial at Arlington Cemetery. The Challenger’s commander and pilot, Lt. Colonel Dick Scoobe and (Navy) Captain Michael Smith, are buried there as well. If you’re ever there, it’s located near where the shuttle bus stops for the Tomb of the Unknowns.
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### Author:  [@The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stainless_Steel_Rat)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2016, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-28-86-lest-we-forget/744505/20 "2016-01-28T19:41:24Z")
I was working at my desk when somebody told us the Challenger had exploded. I refused to believe it, until I and others walked up the hall where a TV was and saw it.
Like Kennedy’s assisination and 9-11, it’s one of those events that you always remember where you heard about it.
“Requiescunt in pace”
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