The Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster I Was There

Many people may remember where they were when a particular historical event took place. If you were old enough you may remember where you were when such events as the Kennedy Assassination, Moon Landing, or even more recently when the 9/11 attacks took place. For me though January 28, 1986 is a date that always stands out in my mind. This in many ways was my introduction to history itself.

Columbia Nov. 12th 1981

Going back a bit, I remember seeing the second shuttle launch ever in November 1981 from my kindergarten class room while our teacher battled a 13 inch TV with rabbit ear antennas. For a small country town in eastern Tennessee at the time you were lucky to tune in 3 channels. Cable wasn't available everywhere yet and satellite was reserved for people who could afford it. So things like this were really something special to see. As primitive as it may seem now it was enough to remain etched in my mind from that point forward.

Atlantis Oct. 3rd 1985

In September 1985 due to the bad local economy of the Reagan years my parents decided to move south to Titusville Florida. By October 3rd 1985 I saw Space Shuttle Atlantis maiden voyage from a small fishing dock, probably as close as one was allowed to get. Mrs. Donna's 13 inch TV had nothing on the real thing.

Challenger Oct. 30th 1985

At this point NASA had really began to step up the launch schedule, averaging about 1 launch per month. Sometimes launches were as close as 2 weeks from one another. On October 30th I saw Challenger Launch for the first time on its 8th and final successful mission.

Atlantis Nov. 26th 1985

Then in November 1985 we moved from Titusville a bit south to Cocoa Beach into a small apartment just off the beach. I remember the rent was only $350 a month at that time, almost as amazing as the topic at hand. On November 26th standing on the beach like so many others I saw an amazing rare night launch of Shuttle Atlantis, I will never forget that. That amazing launch was followed a couple of months later by another late evening January 12th 1986 launch of Columbia.

This was my first winter in Florida, and to me it was nothing out of the ordinary and something I didn't even know to consider. However the morning of January 28th 1986, it was cold... just as if we were back in Tennessee. As I got ready for school that day we had the morning news on as always. Whenever a launch was scheduled we paid close attention so see if things would go on as planned or if it were canceled. It was the first time for me that I would be at school and see a launch. At the time from what I remember, Cape View Elementary was the only public school on government property. So we were still pretty close to NASA and the launch site even though we had moved from Titusville.

In school I remember my friends and I being super excited that morning. Our teacher tried to calm the class by telling us it was unlikely to happen. Many of the staff thought it wouldn't launch because it was so cold. So to the surprise of many of us as launch time approached everything was going on as planned. Soon we all headed outside and began watch for the shuttle to come into view.

As I stood outside watching as Challenger rose from over the top of one of the other school buildings near our classroom. I recall looking to my left before the explosion and seeing our PE teacher who had met Christa McAuliffe, the teacher on board at some point at a local education type function that took place in the months prior. He had both his hands up to his face covering all but his eyes as if he were expecting something bad to happen. I remember it because it struck me as odd. Being a kid it never crossed my mind something bad could ever happen, after all it had never happened before so why would it now?

This photo was taken from Cocoa Beach

I turned back towards the shuttle and a few seconds later it happened. I heard the few teachers around us gasp I looked around to see our PE teach as he stood there like a statue just as before. We all watched confused by what just happened, one of my friends said "It blew up!" I just assumed something may be wrong but I figured the space shuttle itself continued on into space. Or maybe they would parachute back to safety. A minute or two later the teacher hurried us all back into the class room.

There was a lot of confusion and even some crying among some of the teachers. We were all talking for what seemed like almost an hour while our teacher came in and out of the room trying to keep everyone calm and get information at the same time. She and the other school staff were checking a TV in the near by room to see what had went wrong. Then after some time she came back into the class and told us all that the space shuttle had exploded and that all the astronauts were gone. If you can imagine the shock! I almost sill didn't believe it. They sent us to the lunch room immediately afterwards and called the buses to take us home.

The next thing you know I was home and watching the TV to see what happened. It was just crazy I don't know how really to describe it. I was pretty devastated over it. I thought for awhile they would never launch another shuttle again. I remember my parents saying that I saw history today. I didn't fully understand what that meant at the time, but it made me take special note of things that I saw and things people did or said around me. Since then because of that I think I always mentally document historical events, as in where I was and what I was doing.

The landlord of the apartments we lived in was in the Coast Guard and would assist in recovering the solid rocket boosters after each flight. I mention that because it made it so much more local and personal. This wasn't something I saw on TV that happened in another world this was something I saw personally and I also knew who it directly impacted on a personal level.

Local stories in the days that followed talked about debris washing up on the beaches and how we were told not to touch it and report it immediately. I would go to the beach expecting to see things washing up half scared I would find something and half hoping I would. Looking back luckily I never saw anything.

In closing I thought about this post and considered I could have went in depth about the launch and how or why everything took place. Instead, that information has been provided many times over and done much better than I could ever put together. The only unique offering I have was my own personal experience being there close by and seeing and experiencing what I did.

Challenger Crew Jan. 28th 1986

Left to right are Teacher-in-Space payload specialist Sharon Christa McAuliffe; payload specialist Gregory Jarvis; and astronauts Judith A. Resnik, mission specialist; Francis R. (Dick) Scobee, mission commander; Ronald E. McNair, mission specialist; Mike J. Smith, pilot; and Ellison S. Onizuka, mission specialist.