# 1/28/86 - Where were you when the Challenger exploded? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 28, 2014, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-28-86-where-were-you-when-the-challenger-exploded/679986 "2014-01-28T22:26:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Bellhorn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/898d66/32.png) [@Bellhorn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bellhorn)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2014, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-28-86-where-were-you-when-the-challenger-exploded/679986/101 "2014-01-29T21:36:45Z")
This is a little bit of a hi-jack, but it is pertinent to the “Where were you when…” theme. I’m old enough remember where I was when JFK was shot and MLK and man on the moon, etc. But back when I was in High School, I had a project to collect oral histories from the town’s OLDER folks (they were only 45-50 years old, at the time) answers to the “Where were you when…” questions. It was early 1970, and I the event(s) I initially asked them to recall where Pearl Harbor, DDay, VE day and VJ day. But to a person, I realized that the most traumatic event, for them, was the death of FDR in April 1945. This was a generation that had lived trough depression and WW II and what they remembered most clearly was the peaceful death of an ill man in his 60s. When FDR died, most of the folks in my parents generation were just reaching adulthood… he was the only President they had known through depression and war, and, when he died, they felt their whole world might collapse. We remember the Challenger disaster, as the day that our faith in technology took a big hit, with human lives sacrificed. Outside of 9/11, of course, I’m not sure of events that were more traumatic. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2014, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-28-86-where-were-you-when-the-challenger-exploded/679986/102 "2014-01-29T21:44:33Z")
I was in physics class in high school, which shared a door with the environmental science class next door. They were watching the launch on TV. When the accident happened, one of the students opened the door and told us and we all ran in an watched the coverage for the rest of the hour. It’s one of three events I remember exactly what I was doing when suddenly everyone turned to the TV: when Reagan was shot (I was in grade school); the Challenger explosion (high school); and of course 9/11 (at work). ---
**Author:** ![Terr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Terr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terr)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2014, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-28-86-where-were-you-when-the-challenger-exploded/679986/103 "2014-01-29T21:49:00Z")
> [@Bellhorn](#): > > When FDR died, most of the folks in my parents generation were just reaching adulthood… he was the only President they had known through depression and war, and, when he died, they felt their whole world might collapse. Thank God for Presidential term limits. ---
**Author:** ![Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tastes_of_chocolate/32/3232_2.png) [@Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tastes_of_Chocolate)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2014, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-28-86-where-were-you-when-the-challenger-exploded/679986/104 "2014-01-29T21:55:50Z")
> [@Charley](#): > > I’m going to try not to offend anyone at all, or be crass about this, but it’s genuinely completely outside my experience. Is/was it normal for people to pay this much attention to a shuttle launch at this time? Obviously you all remember the loss, but so many people seem to have been watching the actual launch. Was that normal? Was it the inclusion of Christa McAuliffe that attracted more attention? (Wikipedia seems to think so, but is that accurate?) > > I think I watched the first launch of the first shuttle, maybe, but the launches weren’t in any way a part of my childhood. Clearly that’s to be expected to some extent - not my country, not my space race. But I’m surprised at the impression I’m getting that it seems normal that people would watch these things live. I have seen the Challenger footage since, of course. It’s very moving. I think it’s a couple of things. One - this was pre-common internet, and at a time when a lot of people didn’t have cable TV. If you had a TV turned on, there was a really good chance that the station carried the launch, or switched to it after the breakup. Two - 1986 isn’t that long after the glamor days of space race and astronauts. Really, just 1 generation removed. As a kid, I wanted to be an astronaut. Glamor and science and damn-thats-cool, all rolled into one. Three - as you mentioned, it was the first civilian on a shuttle. A lot of us wanted to be her. Four - I’m sure this thread it getting a self-selecting group of respondants. If you don’t remember it, there’s a good chance you didn’t even open the thread. Me? I was in college, between classes. I remember sitting in the dorm floor lounge, watching the same footage over and over. Looking back, I think I was a bit in shock over it. I was to young to remember the fire of Apollo 1 or the emergancy of Apollo 13. This was my first astronauts-are-mortals moment. The shuttle can still make me teary-eyed. I was at Kennedy Space Center a few days before the final shuttle launch. The shuttle was already on the launch pad, and we sat there looking at it for a while. The idea that that the space shuttle era, which covered my young adult life, was over was rather sad. ---
**Author:** ![Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulf_the_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2014, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-28-86-where-were-you-when-the-challenger-exploded/679986/105 "2014-01-29T22:47:17Z")
It wasn’t just that McAuliffe was a civilian, but that she was a teacher. I was teaching school at the time, and many folks at my school who were not at all interested in space or space shuttles were quite jazzed at the inclusion of a teacher on board. You’ll notice that a lot of the folks who said they were watching said they were watching in school. If not for McAuliffe I doubt most of them would have had TVs tuned to the launch at all. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2014, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-28-86-where-were-you-when-the-challenger-exploded/679986/106 "2014-01-29T22:52:40Z")
I had recently moved to another state to get away from familiar haunts after having my heart broken. I’d been so desperate to go that I’d just moved in with (very patient) friends – no job, minimal belongings. I was moping around their apartment while they were at work when one of them called and said “put on the TV.” What channel, I asked. “Doesn’t matter,” came the chilling monotone. Although I didn’t personally know any of the lost astronauts, my circumstances made it feel pretty awful. No computer, no Internet, no girlfriend, no money to pay for long-distance calls…I spent the day isolated and feeling very morbidly sorry for myself. ---
**Author:** ![Junkman209](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/junkman209/32/5522_2.png) [@Junkman209](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Junkman209)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2014, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-28-86-where-were-you-when-the-challenger-exploded/679986/107 "2014-01-29T22:56:11Z")
I was hitchhiking. Headed from class at one university to where I worked at another university. The stranger who picked me up told me about the disaster. It was a quiet, introspective, ride. We were both dumbfounded. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2014, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-28-86-where-were-you-when-the-challenger-exploded/679986/108 "2014-01-29T23:50:00Z")
Elementary school. Not sure where I was when it actually exploded, but when I heard about it we were in gym class. First thing I said upon hearing was “what did it look at [name of some girl in class]'s face?”. Yeah, we didn’t have such a thing as “too soon” back then. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2014, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-28-86-where-were-you-when-the-challenger-exploded/679986/109 "2014-01-30T00:16:50Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > Few people remember where they were when they found out that astronauts Grissom, White, and Chaffee died in a fire on the launching pad in an Apollo 1 test exercise in January 1967. I remember it very well. It was a Friday night, 27 January. I was watching _ **Time Tunnel** _, which came on at 6:30 pm in Minneapolis, with my mom and older brother. I can still remember the exact moment, about 40 minutes into the show, when ABC broke into the program with the first news flash. It was the episode with Joshua at Jericho. I was in sixth grade at the time. I also remember the exact moment in _ **Batman** _ when they broke in with the news that Gemini 8 (piloted by Neil Armstrong) had to cut short its mission because of a faulty thruster in March of 1966. Apollo 13 I remember primarily from the cutaways NBC did during _ **The Tonight Show** _, but I’m certain I was watching TV (probably _ **Mayberry RFD** _) in my room when the first news flash came on. ---
**Author:** ![Jimson\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/838e76/32.png) [@Jimson\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jimson_Jim)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2014, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-28-86-where-were-you-when-the-challenger-exploded/679986/110 "2014-01-30T20:28:56Z")
Wow just like \*\*Skammer \*\*I was a in a high school physics class. But our class was watching the launch as we had been studding projectile motion for the past month or so. Our teacher (Mr. Freed) was big on non-traditional teaching methods and most certainly had something planned to get into before the explosion. When it exploded it happened so suddenly and completely it took several seconds for the class to register what happened. ---
**Author:** ![E.Thorp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@E.Thorp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E.Thorp)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2014, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-28-86-where-were-you-when-the-challenger-exploded/679986/111 "2014-01-30T21:22:45Z")
Freshman in college, on my way into German class but there was a fuss around the poli sci class next door, where a TV was on. We took it all in for a few minutes, but IIRC after about 15 minutes we just went on with class. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2014, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-28-86-where-were-you-when-the-challenger-exploded/679986/112 "2014-01-30T22:44:42Z")
I was in my high school’s locker room, either changing for or changing from gym class. ---
**Author:** ![Iggy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iggy/32/3364_2.png) [@Iggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iggy)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2014, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-28-86-where-were-you-when-the-challenger-exploded/679986/113 "2014-01-31T00:35:22Z")
> [@Gagundathar](#): > > I was working in downtown Atlanta as an analyst for a financial company when the news came in and our boss brought out his TV and set it up in the break room so we could watch the coverage. No work occurred that day, obviously. \*\*Weirdly, I was convinced that it was sabotage. \*\* Yes, I was a bit crazy back then. Who would have thought that a single O-ring assembly would cause such a tragedy? But, for the lack of a nail, the kingdom fell. I remember discussing the possibility of sabotage or an Act of War as the cause. There was an ongoing standoff with the Lybians at the time and Qaddaffi had proclaimed a “Line of Death” in the Gulf of Sidra. The US Navy was preparing to cross that line in defiance in line with the US position that much of the area was international waters. I remember wondering if it was somehow possible that the Lybians could have shot down the shuttle. Of course I had no concept how difficult that would be. A couple months later the West Berlin disco bombing occurred, an act attributed to the Lybians. ---
**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:** [January 31, 2014, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-28-86-where-were-you-when-the-challenger-exploded/679986/114 "2014-01-31T01:42:12Z")
In my apartment in Quebec City, studying for law midterms. The first I heard of it was when my roommate came home and told me about it. We didn’t have a tv, so I didn’t see it at the time. My memory of it is all from still photos in the papers the next day, and then the Time cover story. In fact, I’m not sure if I ever saw the film of it at that time. I don’t remember it, if I did. ---
**Author:** ![Artemis\_Tardis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4bbf92/32.png) [@Artemis\_Tardis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Artemis_Tardis)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2014, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-28-86-where-were-you-when-the-challenger-exploded/679986/115 "2014-01-31T12:57:43Z")
I was not born yet. I do remember september 11, though. Mum picked me up at school and told me there was a plane accident in the US. I went to the attic where I used to hang out building legos and watching tv. I was a bit annoyed that they were not transmitting Dragon Ball Z. And I saw the second attack. ---
**Author:** ![Artemis\_Tardis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4bbf92/32.png) [@Artemis\_Tardis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Artemis_Tardis)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2014, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-28-86-where-were-you-when-the-challenger-exploded/679986/116 "2014-01-31T12:58:46Z")
Not so coincidentally it was on that same tv we saw the death of Princess Diana. ---
**Author:** ![pullin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c57346/32.png) [@pullin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pullin)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2014, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-28-86-where-were-you-when-the-challenger-exploded/679986/117 "2014-01-31T14:36:28Z")
I remember seeing political cartoonist George Fisher’s cartoon in the following day’s paper. For me, it’s still one of the most moving drawings I’ve seen. [Link](http://scipio.uark.edu/cdm/ref/collection/GeoFisher/id/30) For anyone familiar with Fisher, isn’t that one of his few cartoons that didn’t have a “snooky” in it? (He hid his wife’s nickname in most of his drawings… it was a game for us Gazette readers to hunt for it in every new cartoon) ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2014, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-28-86-where-were-you-when-the-challenger-exploded/679986/118 "2014-01-31T19:20:11Z")
In my dorm room. I had the radio on a music station and there was a special news bulletin. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2014, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-28-86-where-were-you-when-the-challenger-exploded/679986/119 "2014-01-31T19:43:59Z")
I was a freshman in college. (That year, I was a EE major.) On my way to class, I passed by the ROTC building and overheard two Air Force cadets talking about it. When I got to class, the professor walked in. Normally, he was a bit of a wiseacre. That day, he was dead serious. He told us about the explosion, and suggested that those who were religiously inclined might want to remember the astronauts in their prayers. Then he gave the normal lecture. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2014, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-28-86-where-were-you-when-the-challenger-exploded/679986/120 "2014-01-31T20:17:12Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > . . . Point of fact: _Challenger_ didn’t “explode”; the hot jet of gas escaping from the right-hand SRB cut into the attachment strut and the into the hydrogen tank, causing the booster to break away and unbalance the thrust, resulting in rupture of the of the External Tank and breakup of the Orbiter due to aerodynamic forces. . . . Well, no. I understand what you’re saying, but. . . > [@Merriam-Webster](#): > > ex·plode verb \ik-ˈsplōd\ > > **: to suddenly break apart in a violent way with parts flying outward** > > **: to change in a very sudden and violent way** > > : to move with sudden speed and force > > intransitive verb > 1: to burst forth with sudden violence or noise from internal energy: as > > a: to undergo a rapid chemical or nuclear reaction with the production of noise, heat, and violent expansion of gases \ > > b: to burst violently as a result of pressure from within > > 2 a: to give forth a sudden strong and noisy outburst of emotion \ > > b: to move with sudden speed and force \ > > 3: to increase rapidly \ > **4: to suggest an explosion (as in appearance or effect) \** I don’t make the definitions. I just work here. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-28-86-where-were-you-when-the-challenger-exploded/679986.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-28-86-where-were-you-when-the-challenger-exploded/679986.md?page=7)