The Challenger Anniversary

[Blarg]

1 hour ago, DCAngelsFan said:

To me, the Challenger was one of the most shocking moments of my life.

I guess you missed out on Apollo 1. They put in a park named after Grissom next to our new junior High School in Fullerton. It was the first big shock that hit our family since my Father was part of the guidance control team for Apollo. He never had much faith in the Shuttle program. Inside the industry they had reduncies for what they called points of failure that could cause a catastrophy. They referred to the shuttles glued on heat shields as 21,000 points of failure, which caused the Columbia disaster.

[Taylor]

1 hour ago, Tank said:

this is thread is about where you were when it happened, not what your opinion is about why it happened.

if you want to talk about why it happened and the layers of incompetence, feel free to start your own thread.

I apologize for violating the unspoken rules of your thread with my "opinion."

[gotbeer]

I was a senior in high school.  My buddy was in the AV room when it happened.  I guess he only saw a portion of it, but he walked in and said there was an accident on the space shuttle.  With how reliable it had been the 24 other missions, I was thinking it was something minor.  It wasn't until I got home from class a few hours later and turned on the news that I found out how bad it was.  

[AngelsLakersFan]

I was in the room with a few others at NASA begging them not to launch after we noticed something was amiss. Sadly they went through with it anyway.

[Slegnaac]

I was working at Hughes Aircraft.

There had been a lot of discussion at work leading up to the mission because Gregory Jarvis worked at Hughes.  In addition Ronald McNair worked at the Hughes Research Center in Malibu, a separate but related company.

That was not a happy day.

They named a section of road outside the facility Greg Jarvis Way in his honor.

[Brandon]

Why does Taylor literally ruin every thread?

[Vegas Halo Fan]

I was working for the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board as a Parole Investigator at the intake center for the state. I shared an office with a fellow investigator. A case manager, who normally was smiling and jovial, came to the office door with an ashen look on his face. "The shuttle just exploded." We were just numb.

An aside: The colleague who I was in the office with that day later got a job as an agent with US Customs. He was one of the 168 victims of the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. Four months out of nursing school, I heard the explosion while walking my dog in the courtyard of my apartment complex. Minutes later, my hospital called, activating the disaster plan and calling in all off duty personnel. I had no idea at the time that Claude's office was at Murrah.

I visited his memorial at the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum when I went there two years ago to move my stepdaughter back to Stillwater to start a three-year veterinary residency program at Oklahoma State University. For those who have not been there, there are 168 chairs, each bearing the name of one of the victims. I have more stories about that day and the aftermath, but that is for a different time.

Edited January 31, 2023 by Vegas Halo Fan

[AngelsLakersFan]

19 minutes ago, Vegas Halo Fan said:

An aside: The colleague who I was in the office with that day later got a job as an agent with US Customs. He was one of the 168 victims of the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. Four months out of nursing school, I heard the explosion while walking my dog in the courtyard of my apartment complex. Minutes later, my hospital called, activating the disaster plan and calling in all off duty personnel. I had no idea at the time that Claude's office was at Murrah.

I visited his memorial at the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum when I went there two years ago to move my stepdaughter back to Stillwater to start a three-year veterinary residency program at Oklahoma State University. For those who have not been there, there are 168 chairs, each bearing the name of one of the victims. I have more stories about that day and the aftermath, but that is for a different time.

This is a topic about where you were on the day the Challenger blew up, not the Oklahoma City bombing. If you want to discuss that then please create a new topic.

[St1ck]

I think I ditched school that day to go steal baseball cards from Toys R Us. RIP Geoffrey the Giraffe.

[Taylor]

11 hours ago, Brandon said:

Why does Taylor literally ruin every thread?

One of the guys who tried to blow the whistle was a guest on Joe Rogan a few years ago.

[Blarg]

11 hours ago, Brandon said:

Why does Taylor literally ruin every thread?

He's like the kid at the end of the dinner table that wants to join in on the adult conversations but can only blurt out, I like turtles!

[Taylor]

3 minutes ago, Blarg said:

He's like the kid at the end of the dinner table that wants to join in on the adult conversations but can only blurt out, I like turtles!

I do like turtles. I had a box turtle as a kid.

[UndertheHalo]

I was alive when the space boat blew up.  I can’t say exactly what I was doing though.  Sorry Tank. 

[Taylor]

1 minute ago, UndertheHalo said:

I was alive when the space boat blew up.  I can’t say exactly what I was doing though.  Sorry Tank. 

Crazy that it was just a few months before the Chernobyl disaster. Two sad tales of imperialist governments sacrificing their own people in a vain attempt to look like badasses in the international community.

[tdawg87]

Christa McAuliffe was a teacher from NH. We have a planetarium in her name. I think every school makes a field trip there at some point.

[St1ck]

16 minutes ago, tdawg87 said:

Christa McAuliffe was a teacher from NH. We have a planetarium in her name. I think every school makes a field trip there at some point.

I wonder if that's why she volunteered. Free ride out of New Hampshire. 

[tdawg87]

6 minutes ago, St1ck said:

I wonder if that's why she volunteered. Free ride out of New Hampshire. 

I mean she got as far away from NH as she possibly could. They have better beer on the moon.

[St1ck]

31 minutes ago, tdawg87 said:

I mean she got as far away from NH as she possibly could. They have better beer on the moon.

I'll bet a nice cold double IPA would have hit the spot while they were being burned alive in the shuttle capsule. 

[tdawg87]

8 minutes ago, St1ck said:

I'll bet a nice cold double IPA would have hit the spot while they were being burned alive in the shuttle capsule. 

Heady Topper for them all.

[cals]

Don’t you assholes ruin a Tank thread!

[Taylor]

29 minutes ago, cals said:

Don’t you assholes ruin a Tank thread!

I honestly feel sadness about The Challenger disaster, and my initial post wasn't meant to detail the thread or detract from the sentiment Tank was going for. 

[St1ck]

33 minutes ago, cals said:

Don’t you assholes ruin a Tank thread!

If I'm here and you're here, doesn't that make it our thread?

[cals]

Just now, St1ck said:

If I'm here and you're here, doesn't that make it our thread?

No.

[cals]

5 hours ago, St1ck said:

RIP Geoffrey the Giraffe.

What a terrible name for a giraffe. Person, too. 

[St1ck]

10 minutes ago, cals said:

What a terrible name for a giraffe. Person, too. 

Ge offrey the Giraffe