Challenger Explosion, 1986, by Ezra Freeman
From MemoryArchive
Who: Ezra Freeman What: Challenger Explosion When: January 28, 1986 Where: Florida
In 1986 I was in 8th grade of a K-12 school in Gainesville Florida. From the football field at our school, you could see the space shuttle launches; they looked kind of like a jet with a white smoke trail that went up and up until you couldn't see it anymore. We always had the option of getting out of class to see the launch, since it was 'educational.' I nearly always did, since it was nice to break the routine and hang out with my friends outside. For this particular launch, one of the 4th grade teachers from our school was one of the finalists in the teacher competition (to be the first civilian to go up in the shuttle). He wasn't chosen (a woman from New Hampshire was), but he came close enough so that our school had a special interest in the launch, and nearly all the students and teachers were there-- I think that they had even canceled classes for that hour.
I remember that it was a clear and cold (by Florida standards) morning. I remember seeing the shuttle go up as normal for the first minute, then there was a white puff of smoke with smoky trailers flying off in different directions and falling back towards earth. Everyone just sort of stood there scratching their heads, kind of "that wasn't supposed to happen, was it?", but at that point no one really knew what had happened or thought that the shuttle had actually exploded. A group of us went to a nearby classroom, where one of the teachers set up a TV set-- they weren't automatically in all the classrooms then, so it took a little while. I remember that when we turned on the TV, there was footage of the explosion on every single channel, so that as we turned the knob they had interrupted every single program with the special coverage. Many of the kids and some of the teachers were very upset and were crying, but I mostly just found the whole thing exciting and interesting. I guess I was kind of empathy challenged, although I did feel bad for the 7 astronauts. Well that's that story...
