OT: Challenger, What were you doing 25 years ago today?

[JHarbin]

I was a computer maintenance engineer working on DECnet with PDP 11/44, VAX 11/750 and VAX 11/785 minicomputers.

I think the question was not "where were you working or going to school", but "what you were doing when you heard about the explosion."

We seem to like to play this game over here...

 

[rta53]

I was working with an electrical contractor and we were at a medical clinic installing some devices. I remember walking through the waiting area and seeing Peter Jennings and then a replay of the video. It was almost like they were still trying to discern exactly what had happened with hopes that it really wasn't what they feared. Seems I remember Jennings saying something about the Challenger being gone.

 

[Steve@HSDCorp]

I was almost three, so I think I was in Minnisota or Northern Michigan.

 

[jtn]

Going through basic training for the Navy in Orlando. They marched us out on the drill grounds so we could watch it. Couldn't hear any noise from it but definitely saw the big puff of smoke and the smoke trails going different directions from there and knew something had gone wrong.

 

[I is a noob]

I was only a few weeks old....

 

[cnorm5623]

i am with 'I is a noob' i was only a month and a half old

 

[escoplcguy]

i was 18 months old, so i was probably oblivious to the situation and enjoyed my bottle. or juice cup

 

[rguimond]

I remember being sick, so I wasn't at school. Swung the old C-band satellite dish to watch a NASA wild feed just minutes before the launch.

 

[mvaughan]

Mr. Schaaf''s High School Physics class. Within 5 minutes he had wheeled in a TV and we all watched....Will never forget that day, or feeling!

 

[FLAengineer]

Challenger 25 years

I was working night shift in a store in St. Petersburg, FL at the time. Slept late after my shift, probably got up about when the Challenger exploded.. Maybe 10-15 minutes later, turned on the TV and saw what had happened. Went outside, and could see the smoke trails of the booster engines still in the air. They looked all twisty and broken at the top... not their normal pattern at all (I still have that picture in my memory). Called my mom in N. Alabama, she had not seen the TV yet, told her what had happened and asked where my dad was. Dad worked as a contractor at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville Alabama. They are right beside Marshall Space Flight Center there, where all the astronauts trained (zero G buoyancy tank) Very tight community in Huntsville with the residents, the military and NASA. Dad was out on the base, later told me the word spread from building to building almost instantly. Needless to say, the entire community was devastated....

 

[banditbigdog]

I was working in an electronic maintenance facility at Fort
Polk LA. Not sure if someone had a radio on or we tuned our IFR 1200's to the local radio station.
The whole shop stopped working and listened.