cheers.

Sad anniversary, indeed.

I remember the Challenger. It struck me when I learned about it reading a science book.

Yeah, I remember it and where I was. It was probably one of the first where were you when events in my life. Sitting there watching it played over and over thinking is this for real.

I have three moments like that: the Challenger explosion, 9/11 and oddly, when Reagan was shot.

I remember Reagan too. Also in light of what's going on in Egypt right now has also stirred up memories of the Iran hostages, which I can remember as being on the news and hearing about it but not really knowing what was going on(was 5 when it happened). Actually Columbia stands out for me to, it was a Sat. morning and I was working my 2nd job when it came across the radio.

*salutes the 7 brave astronauts who died that day*

I was in 4th grade when it happened, we were watching it live on TV. We didn't understand what had happened when the explosion occurred, but within a minute the Principle's voice came over the PA system and told us all to pack up and head home for the day. The next day was also off school in remembrance of the brave souls who died, and so families could mourn together. I didn't understand the profoundness of the event when I was a kid, but it sinks in this many years later. They gave their lives in the name of science, discovery, exploration and taking risks to be pioneers - perfect examples of the finest the human spirit has to offer. They are and always will be heroes for as long as they are remembered.

Well said, and very much agreed with! *hugs ya*

But more than not forgetting, I wish that people were more inspired by their heroism. Everyone had begun to take shuttle launches for granted, but launching yourself into orbit around the planet on a burning gas tank is dangerous business! Sometimes we forget what heroes actually are.

The problem with heroism is that if it ever becomes common, people lose interest in it. =/

BTW - *bearhugs and molests you* Miss ya lots, sweetie.

The cause was cold & O ring failure I think
Anyway here's another Challenger http://www.furaffinity.net/view/2899359/

I was watching the whole thing on tv during school. It's one of those "never forget" moments for me too.

Goddamn! 25 years already~!? O.O Now I'm feeling old.

I remember it very very clearly. The look and even the smell of Mrs. Fields classroom, everything. Watching it on television, and all of a sudden... My childhood got just a little more removed from me.

I remember it very much. I had had nightmares about it exploding for two weeks before the launch which was odd cause i normally did not have dreams like that. we were in english class and were not allowed to watch the liftoff even though every other class was watching it because it was going to be historic and awesome. someone asked why we were not getting to watch it and the teacher said we were there to be taught not entertained. i do not know why but i just blurted out that it was just going to blow up anyway. moments later a teacher from next store burst in saying it blew up and everyone looked at me like i did it. i tried to explain i just kept seeing it in my dreams but people acted like i was the devil for months after that.

Such a tragedy...will never forget...

I grew up with the space program. I remeber (showing age here) being in first grade and watching the Mercury missions. Watching "The greats" like Walter Cronkite covering the reports.To me Walter was THE VOICE of the space missions. Growing up with the Gemini program and then Apollo. Sitting at the TV every momnet I could. Watching the simulations using modified model railroad cars with models of the Saturn V, the command and service module and lunar lander.

I remember waking up at night and hearing about some sort of trouble with one mission. I sneaked out of bed and peeked around the corner to see the reports of the explosion on Apollo 13. I have been to the Kennedy Space Center after the Apollo missions were completed and before the Shuttle program had started. I marveled at the sight of the Saturn V on display as it was laying on it's side. Looking up at the 5 engine bells of the first stage and feeling so, so very small.

I lived in Florida for several years and had the chance to see two shuttl launches in the far distance. My greatest memory was finally going to the Space Center itself to watch a shuttle launch. I was with 2 very close friends. Who they themselves have since left this world. The launch was at 3 AM and we watched in awe as we saw the shuttle al lit up in the distance. There were large speakers all over the area so the crouwds could listen in to all the ground to shuttle communications. Then came that magic moment when those final 10 seconds were counted down.

At zero we watched the whole area around the launch pad light up in total and complete silence. The shuttle was maybe a mile up before we actually started to hear that low unforgetable rumble of the sound as it finally reached us. It was an incredible evening. No Moon, totally and completly clear star filled sky as we saw it quite litteraly reach for the star. By the time it faded into that black star filled sky, it was already half way to Spain.

I look back at what could have been. Watching things like 2001: A Space Odyessy and imagining that humanity could have done all those thing by now. Interest in space started to fade even before the end of the Apollo program. There WAS supposed to be an Apollo 18 mission. But interest and funding faded. Instead the space program faded into mediocrity. There was no grand vision, just bean counters cutting the guts out of NASA.

I always think of a quote commonly associated with Robert Kennedy...

Some men see things the way they are and ask why, I see things that could be and ask why not.

Oh, yes, the "where were you when" moments.

For me, the Space Program was this fascinating and mysterious thing all happening somewhere far away that I'll never get the chance to visit. Yet, I was hopeful that one day, humans would go to the stars- near Earth Orbit, at the very least. It wasn't until all the happy hooplah over the Canadarm that the Space Program became more... personal for me (I was also older by then, and could appreciate the whole thing more completely).

I don't remember this, as I was only a year old, but my mother tells me that she plunked me down in front of the TV and told me to "watch, this is HISTORY." That was the Moon landing, and we watched Niel Armstrong take that historic, extra-planetary stroll.

I was 18 when Challenger fell- before the launch, I'd been having disturbing, but incomprehensible, dreams of a strange, white, puffy blob of a cloud: one long trail going in to meet a larger, rounded form, then two thinner trails going out. I remember blue sky and a thin line of land and a wide expanse of water. The image was static- it didn't move, there was no sound, just that strange... cloud. That's it. I doodled it in idle moments while at school- it was all over my scribblers, even test papers. I had no idea what it meant, except that it scared me and left me feeling so sad for most of the day. This went on for about two weeks.

The day of the launch, it was still early, local time (8:30-ish? I didn't have school that day- I don't recall why: in-service or it was a weekend), and I was hearing the radio, barely comprehensible in my muzzy just-waking state. I'd had another of those odd cloud-dreams. The words "there is a problem," and "Challenger" brought me to full consciousness to hear that my room-mate was crying softly (I'd left home when I was 16 to escape abuse and was living with friends). "Oh no," I thought, "she loves the Space Program..." My roomie would watch, or listen to, every launch she could. I went to her room to find out what was going on. Four words were all she could manage: "The Challenger blew up."

We spent the rest of the day crying like little kids, eating Oreo ice-cream (you know it was serious- she never shared that stuff with anyone), and watching the horrible news when we finally got full vid of the tragedy. I nearly screamed when I saw the cloud- now I knew what my dream had meant- too late to make any difference, and I've felt guilt over it ever since. This was especially hard for my roomie- this was very personal for her: she'd filled out the forms for the Civilian Space Program but had never sent them in.

I wore a black armband in their memory for a year. Did the same when Columbia died, too (though I hadn't dreamed about that tragedy).

The glorious Dream of space-travel that might have been, if not for... It still makes me weep to this day to remember. Any launch after Challenger and Columbia seemed like an afterthought, especially after the years-long hiatus. Something was missing, and then, 9/11 happened, the paranoia rose and took over your politics and now the shuttle program has been scrapped.

"Space-trucks" they might have been, but they were the first, repeatable, regular shuttle to orbit we had. Discovery is slated to launch for the last time this month- February 24th. Atlantis will be the very last shuttle to go up, the fleet being grounded after that- July 28th, 2011, assuming that no problems arise. I'm going to miss them. Maybe some day, we'll find it in ourselves to do it again, but I don't think it will be in my lifetime.