January 28th, 1986 - STS-51-L

[grumbler]

We (at the company I worked for) watched the launch live because we had a bunch of shuttle nuts among the engineers there.  My boss looked at the replay maybe three times, then explained exactly what had happened.  He was correct in every detail (down to the cold not allowing the o-rings to re-seal).  To this day I have never seen a more impressive display of "engineer think."

[Siege]

The 'Teacher in Space' program was kind of a big deal. 

By the time the launch was getting near, we (my friends and I anyway) were pretty fatigued by the over-coverage of teacher angle.  Our teachers wouldn't shut up about it, particularly my feminist English teacher who in retrospect kind of bore a resemblance to Ms. McAuliffe.

Millions of students, myself included, watched the launch (and explosion) live on TV.  When it blew up, our teacher was like "uhhhh" and then after a moment or so started crying.  Me and most of the other boys in the class started mocking her.

IIRC the launch happened to coincide with our lunch period, so they were showing it on the TV in the library.  My friends & I did our usual thing and ate our lunch in one of the hallways.  Some kid we barely knew ran up & told us the space shuttle exploded which we assumed was a joke of some sort.  But out of curiosity we headed to the library, making our own jokes about it along the way.  Was a bit awkward when we walked into the library and everyone was either crying or in stunned disbelief.

Later that afternoon in English class, the teacher asked if any of us would like to donate money to a fund she was putting together to build a statue of Christa McAuliffe.  Then I was in stunned disbelief.

Getting stunned by news is a healthy sign of a largely peacefull life.
The whole "I can't believe this is happening to me" because really bad things rarely happens to you.

[Agelastus]

The launch coincided with "children's TV" hour in the UK; I can't remember if they pre-empted what was on with breaking news or whether it was the lead story from "Newsround" now, all these years later, but it was certainly enough to leave one hell of an impression on a young mind. I can remember feeling utterly saddened and depressed.

I also remember thinking the explosion brought the image of a crab to mind; it still does.

[PJL]

The launch coincided with "children's TV" hour in the UK; I can't remember if they pre-empted what was on with breaking news or whether it was the lead story from "Newsround" now, all these years later, but it was certainly enough to leave one hell of an impression on a young mind. I can remember feeling utterly saddened and depressed.

I also remember thinking the explosion brought the image of a crab to mind; it still does.

It was definitely the lead story on Newsround. I know because I saw the bulletin. What I didn't know until recently was that it was only 15 or so minutes after the explosion when it aired on the progamme (I'd always thought it was a few hours earlier). Which considering this was the era before 24 news and the internet etc was pretty impressive.

[The Brain]

School was cancelled. So big deal. People took it seriously at the time.

Columbia wasn't such a big deal?

Breaking up on re-entry isn't quite the same.

It's never easy, I know.

[KRonn]

I still don't understand why it was such a huge deal though.  Certainly sad, but I don't see the long term consequences. 

I think one of the reasons it resonated was because Christa McAuliffe, just a regular jane non-astronaut was on board.  So it was getting a lot more attention than maybe a regular launch would have.  That resonated with a lot of people.

Agreed on that. Plus disasters in space usually seem to have more impact on more peope, I think due to the nature of space exploration being seen as more a human endeavor to benefit all.