Warbird Information Exchange

We actually saw her on the launch pad ( and up close also ) & where supposed to witness the launch.

There was a small delay with launch due to weather. So missed the launch.

Got back home....the rest is history.

God rest their souls.

I remember I had sat down to take my High School English Regents exam when a guy sitting next to me said "Did you hear they lost the shuttle? I guess they didn't like that teacher?" It wasn't until after the exam that I got to query him more. I then ran to the library where a bunch of students and faculty were watching it on TV. A girl comes up and asks
"Is this on all the channels?"
"Yes."
"Oh great now I'm not gonna get to watch my soap opera I taped!" she says.
Someone said "How about showing a little compassion!"
To which she replied "So it went up...Big Deal!"
"NO...It BLEW UP!"
"Oh."

I was a sophmore at Dowling College when the Discovery made the return to flight. The manager of the cafeteria brought in a TV to watch the launch. No one in the room did not move for 2 mins until the SRB's seperated. Thats when the whole cafeteria let out a cheer.

Pete

Orlando Sentinel: Shuttle reliability remains unrivaled
by Robert "Bob" Crippen
The space industry is approaching a fateful six-day period that has become an annual time of reflection and rededication, as it honors the memory of the three great space tragedies in our history: Apollo 1 (Jan. 27, 1967), Challenger (Jan. 28, 1986) and Columbia (Feb. 1, 2003).
These anniversaries serve as reminders that the price we sometimes pay for extending our reach beyond our earthly grasp can be high. For that reason, it is imperative that we base decisions about how to proceed with our nation's agenda in space on the right arguments.

There is an ongoing discussion among the aerospace and political community regarding the risks of flying the space shuttle beyond its current retirement date of 2010. Those who oppose it often cite aging and safety concerns. Too often, these arguments have been based on somewhat scary probability figures that, by themselves, are wholly inadequate to determine how much longer the shuttle should fly.

...after 126 flights, the demonstrated reliability of the space shuttle is 98.4 percent. Other than the Russian Soyuz (98.2 percent), the demonstrated reliability of systems currently being considered for human spaceflight is zero, since those systems have not yet flown.

Ultimately, there is no way to eliminate risk in spaceflight. At best we can try to understand and manage it to an acceptable level. The risk of flying the shuttle has been successfully managed in 98.4 percent of the missions. The continuous efforts to improve the safety and reliability have resulted in a robust system that is, in many ways, safer each time it flies.

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"Everyone wants to live here (New Jersey), evidenced by the fact that it has the highest population per capita in the U.S..."

Crew members of mission STS-51L stand in the White Room
at Pad 39B following the end of the Terminal
Countdown Demonstration Test (TCDT). From the left: McAuliffe,
Jarvis, Resnik, Scobee, McNair, Smith and Onizuka. (Jan. 8, 1986)

Picture courtesy of the NASA Kennedy Space Center.


Shuttle Mission Simulator scene of astronauts Michael J. Smith,
Ellison S. Onizuka, Judith A. Resnik, and Francis R. (Dick) Scobee
in their launch and entry positions on the flight deck. The photo
was taken by Bill Bowers. (Dec. 12, 1985)

Picture courtesy of NASA.

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"Everyone wants to live here (New Jersey), evidenced by the fact that it has the highest population per capita in the U.S..."

I wasn't going to read this thread- I still have bad memories of that... I was at work at a VW dealership, and one of the mechanics came over to my parts desk, and told me about it- He just blurted out that it had blown up. I told him to go do something physically impossible to himself.(Yeah, I was tactful then, too) Then he said, no, he was serious, and we turned the TV on, and watched the replay. And the replay. A-n-d t-h-e r-e-p-l-a-y.

Like 9/11, I never really got over that one. (Nor the other shuttle- I was at home, and the first thing I did was call my flight instructor, and let him know.)

Robbie

23 Years ago I was 23 Years Old ......................I was on my way to see a buddy of mine we were both War Bird Fans and were planning on watching some movies on his new VHS . It came across the Radio.
Ended up holding a Vigal in front of the TV .........never did watch any Movies. Challenger and Crew Will never be for gotten.

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Always Keep Em Flying !

Glen

Lookie Capt Jim! Wham! Wham! ...............................Termights

i was at work too. assistant manager of a hill's dept store roanoke virginia. returned from lunch, saw group of people in the electronics dept where it was store policy to have all sample tv's on. when they said at nasa go for full throttle i new what happened on explosion. my employees, & total stranger customers all burst into tears & started screaming. i went & told a fellow manager & he thought i was joking.

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tom d. friedman - hey!!! those fokkers were messerschmitts!! * without ammunition, the usaf would be just another flying club!!! * better to have piece of mind than piece of tail!!

My second of four "Kennedy moments" (Reagan; Challenger; 9/11; Columbia)...having been born in 1965, I was not around when JFK was killed. In January 86 I was at college, in the second year of a Print Journalism program, having lunch in what we called the newsroom (just a classroom with typewriters...computers would arrive the next year...and a TV on a cart). Girl named Christine from our class came dashing into the room and blurted "turn on the TV, the shuttle blew up". We did. It had. We watched nothing else for the next couple hours. Few days later I sat down and wrote a short poem about the tragedy. I can still remember most of that, and will certainly never forget the event itself, replaying and replaying and replaying on that TV on the cart in the classroom...Godspeed Challenger Seven.

S.

I was writing a shop order on a customer's Cutlass Supreme in our service drive. The radio was on WNAX, the local news channel, and I was listening to the launch live. After that, it was much as Robbie said--I ran in the showroom and the Sales Manager had already turned on the TV. After that we basically didn't get much done for the rest of the day.

Scott

Grade 10 at Springstead High School, Spring Hill Florida.

We left class early to watch the launch, as it was on its way it had one big ass trail , then 2, then nothing. Very sad moment.

Dave

That was my junior year at Georgia Tech.

I was walking back to the dorm from class when I overheard someone mention it. I didn't really grasp what they said, but went to my room and turned on the TV. I was glued to the aftermath for hours.

What a sad situation.

I was in high school and we had it broadcast on the TVs in all the classrooms. We moved to the gym for a mass immediately after.
I'm glad people still take the time to remember.

I was driving to college when I heard. My uncle Mike was flying down to Florida commercially, viewing the launch live from an airliner. He photographed the whole sequence from launch to debris reigning down, not knowing what had happened until they landed at Ft. Lauderdale. He only had a 135mm lens on the camera, but the shots are quite sharp. I'll have to scan them.

They just thought that something had gone wrong with the solid rocket boosters, not the main vehicle.

Rich

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Rich Kolasa
www.crystalgraphix.com

Like you, I was in the band room when the annoucement came. It was during lunch. I was in 12th Grade.

When Columbia went down, at first I thought I was watching a memorial about the Challenger flight. It took about three reads of "Columbia" before what was happening really hit me.

On 9/11, our doorbell rang at 5 AM. One of our neighbors said "I have your dog", and was holding a dachshund. Mentally, I counted the dogs in the house and realized that while it was a dachshund, it was not one of my dachshunds. I told him it wasn't and he went on his way. I thought "Man, I'm going to have one heck of a story to tell at work today".

I was about 30 NM west of the launch complex, at 8000' MSL, flying a T-34, with the KSC operations frequncy on the #1 comm and Guard on the #2.

Within seconds of the SRBs shooting off in different directions, someone on the the KSC freq transmitted "RTLS! RTLS! All aircraft clear the area!" [RTLS = A "Return To Launch Site" abort, one of the riskiest aborts that shuttle crews train for. It is felt in some circles that it would be nearly impossible in actual practice].

I dove for the deck, even though I had a feeling that a). the orbiter wasn't intact and b). even if it did return, there was no way I would have been in its way, that far to the west. Still, best to be safe than sorry.

During the descent, I remember scanning the skies for the shuttle -- hoping and praying, but seeing nothing. I don't remember any further transmissions on either frequency for at least ten minutes. Just awful silence...

The twisted clouds were still there 20 minutes later when I landed. I snapped a picture of them, and that's the only photo of the event I took. I haven't really looked at that photo album since.

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Buck Wyndham
Editor, WarbirdAlley.com
Warbird Instructor Pilot