# Jan. 28, 1986 - Lest We Forget **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 28, 2023, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jan-28-1986-lest-we-forget/978964 "2023-01-28T20:57:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2023, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jan-28-1986-lest-we-forget/978964/21 "2023-01-29T17:54:11Z")
> [@Lancia](#): > > Sometimes I forget how much younger I am than the average Doper. I was 4 ½ years old when it happened so I have no memory of it. I was in my second year of law school. I remember it well. A big reminder how dangerous all these missions were, and that they had extraordinary crews. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2023, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jan-28-1986-lest-we-forget/978964/22 "2023-01-29T18:30:34Z")
I was teaching in an international school many time zones away. One of our staff had advanced quite far in the educator in space process and received two waves of telegrams. The first was “It should have been you!” and shortly thereafter, “So glad it wasn’t you!” We wheeled out televisions so everyone could see the news. Some classrooms probably already had it on at the time of the explosion ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Misnomer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/misnomer/32/14897_2.png) [@Misnomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misnomer)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2023, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jan-28-1986-lest-we-forget/978964/23 "2023-01-29T18:44:33Z")
> [@susan](#): > > One of our staff had advanced quite far in the educator in space process and received two waves of telegrams. The first was “It should have been you!” and shortly thereafter, “So glad it wasn’t you!” What an emotional rollercoaster for that person!! ☹ ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2023, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jan-28-1986-lest-we-forget/978964/24 "2023-01-29T18:48:43Z")
She wasn’t good for much of anything that day, even more so than the rest of us. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2023, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jan-28-1986-lest-we-forget/978964/25 "2023-01-29T18:56:26Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > I was in my second year of law school. I remember it well. A big reminder how dangerous all these missions were, and that they had extraordinary crews. I assume everybody remembers Feynman’s book about it? Not so much about the crews, but the investigative commission he was on. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2023, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jan-28-1986-lest-we-forget/978964/26 "2023-01-29T19:16:31Z")
I was a enlisted Air Force computer programmer at a technical facility that directly supports a lot of missions, including NASA’s launch activities at Cape Canaveral. I was running a software test on the test mainframe. The system also functioned as a warm-backup to the main operational mainframe, so the operator on the system was responsible for tracking the daily data and processing schedule to parallel the ops machine. The shift supervisor came over to the console of the test system and told the operator “make sure your checklist is current and everything processes correctly, and make sure you save all records, because this morning’s shuttle launch blew up in mid-air, and if there’s a loss investigation we need to be solid.” I new this NCO a long time, and we always had a good relationship including a lot of joking around. I guess I couldn’t process this news as a fact, so I bizarrely treated it as some kind of a joke, and told him that. He gave me a dagger stare and said “This is not a fucking joke” and repeated his instructions to the system operator. I was obviously shocked, plus self-humiliated at my inappropriate reaction. So I mumbled an apology to the shift lead’s retreating back, apologized to the shocked system operator, and terminated my test to make sure the system stayed clear and running correctly. That was a fantastically bad morning, and not a lot got done outside of the absolutely required routine of that agency. ---
**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 29, 2023, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jan-28-1986-lest-we-forget/978964/27 "2023-01-29T19:33:44Z")
> [@Moriarty](#): > > For me now, the most horrific part is to realize that the people on board likely survived that explosion, and only died minutes later when they crashed into the ocean. That free fall would have been hell. Here’s the Master’s take on it: > **[Did the astronauts survive the Challenger explosion long enough to realize...](https://www.straightdope.com/21342112/did-the-astronauts-survive-the-challenger-explosion-long-enough-to-realize-their-plight)** > [@](#): > > “The forces on the orbiter at breakup were probably too low to cause death or serious injury,” NASA medical honcho Joseph Kerwin wrote in a separate report. “The crew possibly, but not certainly, lost consciousness in the seconds following orbiter breakup.” Some of the astronauts managed to get their emergency air packs switched on; of the four units later recovered, three had been manually activated. The fact that the fourth was not may indicate it was only a short time before everybody blacked out, but nobody knows for sure. > > If the cabin depressurized immediately, the crew would have survived 6 to 15 seconds; if not, they might have lived two and a half minutes as their ruined vessel arced through the upper atmosphere, reaching a height of 65,000 feet before falling to earth. If the astronauts were still alive when they struck the water they weren’t afterward. The impact pulverized both cabin and crew, and that plus long immersion in salt water made it impossible to tell what really happened. Poignant, eh? Millions of eyes and billions of dollars in technology were trained on them, yet nobody was watching when they died. ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2023, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jan-28-1986-lest-we-forget/978964/28 "2023-01-29T20:01:36Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > “The crew possibly, but not certainly, lost consciousness in the seconds following orbiter breakup.” I always thought that was a hopeful statement intended to provide some hope that the crew was not aware of their imminent deaths. But then there’s this > [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > Some of the astronauts managed to get their emergency air packs switched on; of the four units later recovered, three had been manually activated. So they clearly survived the explosion, and were aware enough of what happened that they entered into an emergency protocol. Sure, one didn’t get activated. Maybe that person was hit with some flying debris. Or did indeed pass out within seconds. Or was so panicked - and so lacking in a lifetime of training (since they were there for the PR value) - that they just didn’t follow the protocol. Regardless, it’s undeniable that any survivors died on impact. > [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > The impact pulverized both cabin and crew As I said upthread, it would have been a living hell for that last minute of life, especially if they could anticipate their crash into the ocean. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2023, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jan-28-1986-lest-we-forget/978964/29 "2023-01-29T20:05:59Z")
Judith Resnik was a CMU graduate, and the Tartan interviewed her at the first launch of the Space Shuttle, which I was covering as a photographer. Somewhere I have that interview… I should try to find it. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2023, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jan-28-1986-lest-we-forget/978964/30 "2023-01-30T02:46:40Z")
> [@Moriarty](#): > > Or was so panicked - and so lacking in a lifetime of training (since they were there for the PR value) - that they just didn’t follow the protocol. Just in case this comes across as a slam against McCauliff: Most Shuttle missions included one or two crewmembers without a lifetime of training in emergency procedures (though they’re not usually there for PR value). If you’re flying some sort of experiment, then there’s going to be someone on board to operate it, usually one of the eggheads who designed or built it. ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2023, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jan-28-1986-lest-we-forget/978964/31 "2023-01-30T11:31:46Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Just in case this comes across as a slam against McCauliff It wasn’t my intention to slam her; just idle speculation why some, but but all, of the emergency systems weren’t activated. And, of course, I don’t know who didn’t turn theirs on, or why. Ultimately, thinking about the possibilities is so disturbing. ---
**Author:** ![Llama\_Llogophile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@Llama\_Llogophile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Llama_Llogophile)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2023, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jan-28-1986-lest-we-forget/978964/32 "2023-02-01T20:20:17Z")
And today is another unfortunate anniversary: > **[Space Shuttle Columbia disaster](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Columbia_disaster)** > > Pages for logged out editors learn more > > > > > The Space Shuttle Columbia disaster was a fatal accident in the United States space program which occurred on February 1, 2003. During the STS-107 mission, Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated as it reentered the atmosphere over Texas, killing all seven astronauts on board. It was the second Space Shuttle mission to end in disaster, after the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster in 1986, which killed all seven crew members during ascent. > During ... [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jan-28-1986-lest-we-forget/978964.md?page=1)