From MemoryArchive
Who: Kurran Ochwat
What: Space Shuttle Challenger Explosion
When: January 28, 1986
Where: Westerville, Ohio
I was in the first grade when the space shuttle
Challenger exploded on its attempt to escape the
Earth’s atmosphere. My
first grade teacher, Miss. Heartsock set up a
television in the front of our
classroom for us to watch. I remember being extremely excited because I always loved to watch television during school. Having
attention deficit disorder (ADD) as a child, made it extremely difficult for me to sit and listen to the teacher. I could never sit still and several times a week I would get my name writing up on the
chalkboard for being rowdy. I even made it down to the
principal’s office every once in a while. However I was able to avoid getting
paddled by the principal. So watching television was a nice change of pace and got me really excited. The shuttle took off and the whole class ewed and awed. I remember not being too impressed until I saw the shuttle
explode into a fireball. I remember it vividly. There was white smoke coming out the back of the engines as expected then the smoke started to creep up the side. This was kind of peculiar to me. Right when I thought something was wrong it exploded right there in front of my first grade eyes on television. I yelled, “Did you see that!” “The spaceship exploded!” “Wow!” I thought it was the coolest thing at that I ever saw at the time. My teacher was very sad for the rest of the day but it just made me extremely hyper. I was eventually sent down to the principal’s office later that day because I could not stop talking about it. My principal gave me a lecture on respect and how Americans gave their lives for our country that day. Being older, when I look back at the first grade, I want to kick myself for being insensitive to American heroes.
External Links:
NASA
Wikipedia on the Challenger Explosion
