jimmosk@eniac.seas.upenn.edu a guy who thinks he's a poached egg
is that he's in the minority." - James Burke
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Date: Thu, 28 Jan 1993 21:50:00 -0500
From: Tim Tyler <Tim.Tyler@f48.n374.z1.fidonet.org>
Subject: Today in 1986-Remember the Challenger
Newsgroups: sci.space
SB> Just a reminder- 7 years ago today- 11:38am EST....
SB> So, where were you when the Challenger disaster took place?
I was at work at Harris Corporation on the Space Coast. I was working outside that day so witnessed the whole thing first hand. I remember seeing the initial burst and thinking instantly that something looked wrong, then the SRBs went twirling off in separate directions. It felt like the whole world paused for a moment, then pandemonium erupted. Every radio in earshot was immediately tuned to the AM NASA broadcast channel...We didn't get much more work done that day. It was a fairly windless day, I thi
nk the cloud that was created by the explosion hung in the sky for hours, it was there when I left work.
Most of my family has worked at the Space Center since before the Mercury-Redstone days, I remember my Mom was in tears when I called home right after the accident. In Brevard County most businesses and schools flew the flag at half mast for over six months.
I also remember the Return to Flight mission a couple years later...Traffic was stopped all over the Space Coast and people were standing on cartops and rooftops as far as you could see. You almost couldn't hear the rumble from the Shuttles engines for all the cheering that went on that day.