I was a senior in high school in 86. Watching this unfold with the whole class. It was a sad day. We really didn’t say to much about it as it happened. The days to come brought many opinions and discussions. Always looked at space exploration different after this. God bless the crew.
And I was. Freshman in H. S. I remember that day like it was yesterday. What a horrific event in our lives. I differ on space exploration. It is necessary as far as I am concerned. Man never wants to stop looking and learning, and reaching for something bigger than him. It is amazing these people who strap them selves to essentially a bomb, and ride that sucker to space! Awe inspiring to say the least.
@@whitewalker57 I was a freshman too. My brother and I skipped school and watched it live. I remember seeing a parachute and thought everything would be okay. When I turned and saw his face, I realized nobody survived.
Remember watching this live back in the day. Have never forgotten it. Especially as one was a school teacher, with their class watching. Today is February 1st. Which happens to be the 19th anniversary of the Space Shuttle Colombia tragedy too. When it broke up returning home. These pioneers will never be forgotten. Heroes, one and all. Respect.
I was standing on the beach just south of Cape Canaveral and saw this happen right before my eyes. It was a horrible moment I'll never forget, watching pieces fall into the ocean.
I watched it too Kathy. I was in Jacksonville on the USS Simpson. I knew we were just a few miles from Cape Canaveral, so I went topside to get a real view. Everyone else remained down below watching it on television. Once I realized what I had seen, I ran back inside to hear everyone freaking out. About two days later, we joined the Coast Guard to recover pieces of Challenger. We recovered Christa McCullough’s briefcase, and many other pieces. We had two hanger bays full of debris. We weren’t even allowed to look at it though.
I know what you must have felt Kathy Molloy I m sure there was a sense of disappointment felt then The school teacher making it into space and bringing back a lesson for her students I m sure smiles had turned to tears I remember hearing what happened that morning I talked to a girl later about what happened She said they were all dead What happened 17 years later on February 1st 2003 was unprecedented No American astronauts had ever died upon re entry Take it easy
The real reason that Challenger failed was the fact that the 12 foot O-Rings had contracted due to the cold temperature and had not had time to regain their normal size before liftoff. Had the liftoff been 3 to 4 hours later when the temperature had warmed, the O-Rings would have resealed and the disaster would have been avoided. Larger O-Rings are temperature sensitive and expand or contract depending on the temperature of the environment. Fault lies solely on the persons who ordered the liftoff during such cold conditions, not the manufacturers of the O-Rings that were produced and installed to the exact same specifications as all other missions. NASA has a way of directing failures away from themselves.
Just like the Apollo 1 disaster. NASA could not get blamed due to Congressional funding. So a contractor had to be the fall guy. My Grandmother was an Inspector for Rockwell, she worked on the post fire investigation (later retired from Northrup). My Grandfather retired with 25 years from Rockwell as a Supervisor, the year of the Challenger disaster.
@@shwngbr At the time of the disasterous launch, news reports say the blame was with the flight planners who were under a time pressure of being able to launch the shuttles every 14 days. There was no provision for the low external temperatures that fatally affected the o ring seals in the solid fuel boosters.
I know you are upset over the fact that whoever made a mistake on the shuttle launching too early resulting in fatalities. I'm sorry they suffered a violent death. But just know that they're at peace with Jesus in Heaven. May God bless you. 🙏
Watching this now as someone who is almost a teenager, is honestly heartbreaking. It’s disappointing they don’t teach us about space anymore in school, and show the heartbreaking truth of space exploration. I wish they did. Rest in peace challenger crew 💔
I watched this in 6th grade. I'm from Framingham Mass. Christa grew up a few miles from my home. My 6th grade teacher was friends with Christa in college. I can't imagine what it was like for my teacher to watch her friends life end on live T.V. .
I was same age excuse me am the same age as you and I knew something bad had happened before the newscommentators did...it was plain at that very moment it was a terrible 😔 tragedy
@@cocatfan Maybe. Not all of them though. There was evidence that some had tried to access a supply of oxygen. They didn't die immediately. Nobody knows for sure whether any survived the fall or were conscious. Death was at very least not instantaneous, however. Final communication from the shuttle indicates they were aware something had gone wrong. Terrifying!
@@kruszer They found the switches on Scobee’s control panel were configured for manual flight. He was trying to recover the ship and land it at least at some point before impact.
I remember watching the launch of Challenger in real time and recall the man saying "go with throttle up." Then the tragedy happened and I was stunned as my right hand instinctively went up to clutch at my throat. My mouth just hung open but I couldn't speak. I sat in silence and tears came streaming down my face. I'll never forget President Reagan speaking at the memorial service and he read from the poem High Flight, "Slipped the surly bonds of earth to touch the face of God." It was an extremely sad time in our country.😭😭
I was 9 years old in New Zealand and I can still remember it and the sadness i felt, like many kids of that time I was fascinated with the space shuttle. Interestingly, the man that said "go at throttle up" was onboard the first shuttle to launch after the disaster.
I was 21 years old working on the gulf coast in Venice Fl. I remember that beautiful cold day well. We went to the store for lunch, got a sandwich came back to the break room & somebody said the Shuttle just blew up. We went outside & even from a couple hundred miles away on the other coast we could see the now infamous smoke plums going in different directions. One of my buddy's even took a picture of it.
I was working for Grumman Areospace at the time. On that day it was as if someone reached into our chests and pulled our hearts out. Although Grumman was only marginally involved in the shuttle program, we had been so intertwined with America’s space program that it effected every one of us personally.
I was born in Cocoa FL in 1957 raised in Titusville FL seen many launches in person I was watching this launch in my mothers living room in Sea Level NC it was not the 1st time I had seen a launch go wrong. We lost 3 astronauts during the Apollo missions this was the 1st time we lost 7 astronauts at once sadly it would not be the last time.
I was there, I saw it. It was my first sight of the Shuttle after watching all the test runs through the 70's and early 80's. I was so excited, all of us were. Such a sad day.
I saw an interview with a NASA physician who said the crew definitely survived until the vehicle hit the ocean. It’s hard to even imagine what went through their heads on the way down! Same with passenger jets on their way down. Unthinkable!!🤔
the physician was fullashit. they weren't wearing suits which meant their blood woulda been boiling in seconds after pressure was lost. I can't imagine a worse way of going. hopefully they lost consciousness almost immediately.
Long time ago, a conference I attended had a keynote speaker that was a former NASA astronaut. Gave an impassioned speech on this. The fault with the 0-rings were a known issue, but the launch proceeded anyway to meet the deadline. NASA had changed their ideology from the Mercury program of "Prove every system and backup system is fully functional and ready to go before we okay the launch" to "Prove that systems will fail before we halt the launch". His summation was more eloquent than my recollection. Hard lesson to learn.
A chain of critical events cause the damage and exploded together with the dreams and high expectations. Brave souls. I still remember read in papers one of the crew team the teacher said, traveling outer space is more safer than driving a car in US. She was so confident. May their soul rest in peace. ♥️✌
Obviously she didn’t know what she was getting herself into. Anything to do with space is dangerous. Just trying to lift off the ground is a mission on its own.
Before I say my piece, I just want to say that I 100% fully believe & understand that when it comes to Human beings evolving, Progressing, and Advancing as a species there are risks involved, Dangerous risks. ESPECIALLY when it comes to space travel (obviously). We are humans...literally the only "Self-Aware" species we know exists, and since the first modern humans showed up 200,000 years ago we've been "Explorers". It's in our nature...almost in a way, wired into our Brains/DNA to always be "Curious" about the world & the universe we exist in. Unfortunately, the brave men & women put themselves in an exceedingly larger amount of danger exploring places like the deep ocean or Outer Space, (and I believe that all 7 Crew Members of Challenger STS-51-L were fully aware of the risks in traveling to space, no doubt). What I have an issue with is the fact that the Government Big Wigs & NASA Big wigs were warned by the Lead Engineer who worked on the part of Challenger where those O-Rings were located the day/night before launch, and then AGAIN the day/morning of launch...and that Engineer told them plain as day "those O-rings have a Low-End Temperature Tolerance of 53 Degrees Fahrenheit! It's going to be in the 30's all night before launch and a large portion of the morning the day of launch. Those O-Rings WILL FAIL if you do not postpone the launch of STS-51-L"....and because NASA was understandably behind schedule on this mission, the big wigs decided not to listen to the NASA Engineers WHO ACTUALLY BUILT THE DAMN THING and knew what they were talking about, and the big wigs also ultimately decided that the 7 brave Astronauts Lives were worth risking just to keep the Governments scheduling demands...(and I know the Government was funding the whole SLS Program, but is not rescheduling the launch REALLY worth 7 Astronauts & fellow human beings lives?!?!?!) I understand we can't reverse time, what happened can't be changed. We can't alter the past, we can only learn from the mistakes we make and God willing, not make those same mistakes. I guess my point is that we all as humans need to have a little more consideration & respect for each other and all life itself....otherwise, we will never last as an "Advancing Species". R.I.P. Michael J. Smith, Dick Scobee, Ronald E. McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Christa McAuliffe, Gregory Jarvis, Judith Resnik.
nobody was inside the shuttle, nobody is ever inside them, they never go to space, the firmament is real, Copernicus lied, earth is concave, time to wakeup
It was 100% human failure. The manager of the company that built the solid rocket boosters Morton Thiokol or something like that, he's probably 100% responsible for that disaster. I mean, his engineers were warning that launching in such cold temperatures is a big risk. And what did they do? They launched to stay in schedule. Great decision not to hear what the developper of the solid rocket boosters were thinking. This was the actual tragedy of that disaster. Unbelievable..I'm not sure if it really was like that I mean I wasnt even alive before 1988, but as far as I have heard this was the case, and also what Suzuki wrote
I was in 5th grade watching the launch in school live when the shuttle exploded, I couldn't believe my eyes. My teacher was crying the whole day after that, I'll never forget it...RIP to all the crew.
My dad did aswell, and his teacher didn't know I'd happen so when it happened most of his classmates started crying... And the bad thing about the woman was that there was a teacher on board aswell...
I was in 4th grade at school and had a simile experience, but we weren’t watching it. Some teachers were in the teachers lounge and watching it. One came in and told us what happened. They all crying. I remember feeling sad. There was a teacher on board and also Ronald McNair who went to NC A&T which is in my home town. I later graduated from that college.
@trading paints My dad was 4. He remembers his teachers watching it and then they found out about the malfunction and they didn't let the kids watch it but they watched it themselfs, they were showing it because there was a teacher on the ride. It was upsetting for him and it still is.
I remember the day crystaline. I was working in a warehouse in Toronto drivin' a forklift that had a small portable radio on the dash. The station cut to the news bulletin. Within minutes my co-workers and I had gathered around a TV on the lunch table and sat glued to the broadcast. All worked stopped for several hours. Up until 9/11 it was one of those rare moments that stays forever in memory. RIP to the crew of STS-51-L. 😓😓😓😓😓😓😓
Slag can stop a complete break through of hot gas and flame. They went through a strong jet stream as well which shook the spece ship badly ,loosening the slag.Thats why the smoke stopped then started again then burned through after going through the jet stream.This had been reported by an earlier commercial flight as well. They didn't even rap the vulnerable parts before launch .Like you would rap a racing car tyre.
True, caving in to public pressure as in the medias expectations upon NASA led to a person gambling with the lives of the crew and getting them killed. You know that older gent that operated the room outside the hatch never forgave himself. The day prior was gorgeous and sunny but they had to abort because a screw or something minute and rare occurred and they couldnt get the hafch shut!! This had never happened before, makes one think........ He always felt had he routinely gotten it shut, theyd all had lived. Who knows but a certain Engr at Thiokol was overruled, he said if you launch youre gonna kill them......
Exactly. I thought that immediately as I watched the thing blow from a roof I was working on in Jupiter at the time. It was freezing and we were a 100 miles south of the cape.
Sadly, a friend of mine was one of the NASA guys who worked on the O-ring design…he was so traumatized by what he felt was his fault that he has spent the rest of his life paying amends. He carries this moment with him with every breath he takes.
In this type of accident, it would be wrong to take it to heart because this situation had never been an issue right up until it happened. The same can be said for the space shuttle that burned up on re-entry into the atmosphere, with hindsight, this could have also been prevented. These 2 disasters highlight the many dangers faced in space exploration and if NASA had learned from them, there would have been a new series of space vehicles instead of Elon Musk's company.
Well to give him credit, he warned the higher ups, not to launch that day and they ignored him, so it isn't his fault at all, he shouldn't blame himself, there was nothing he could have done, the idiots ignored his warning of the o rings.
I was home from school, sick that day ( lived in Tampa) my dad and I went outside to watch the shuttle go up, and saw the explosion. We weren't sure what happened at that point, I just remember my dad saying, that's not right..something bad has happened.. Sure enough, when we walked back in the house, it was all over the T.V. RIP to those brave souls, and to their families..
I was in 1st grade and was watching the launch live in class. Once the shuttle exploded my teacher quickly turned off the TV. We all kept asking her what happened but she wouldn't answer us. Something I still remember clearly.
Given the risks involved in spaceflight, it's incredible that only a few astronauts have not made it back in all the many journeys into space. Always wondered why there was no provision for escape in the space shuttles. The Apollo rockets had a booster on top of the command module so that in the even of an accident, they could safely release this capsule from the service module and parachute down into the sea.
An escape module on the shuttle was deemed impossible by design engineers, as it would weaken the integrity of the vehicle. The vehicle would not have been able to withstand the stresses of launch and re-entry.
@@hughblanchard6464 That's unfortunate as the 2 shuttle accidents hastened the end of this particular method of spacecraft launches and paved the way for private space flight, something that several astronauts including Neil Armstrong (before he passed away) spoke out against.
IMO, the numbers aren't great. 2 of the 5 (40%) functional shuttles failed. This is 2 of the 135 missions, or a failure for every 68 missions flown. Imagine if you and your spouse bought the same kind of car and both of them exploded and killed you after just 68 commutes to work.
@@fiveightandtenWell cars don't have massive tanks of liquid gasses to ignite if something goes wrong. Once heard that if cars were built to the same high specifications that spacecraft were constructed by, motor vehicles would last for very much longer than they do now.
My mom, myself and my little three yr old boy were camped at the Salton Sea. We were walking in camp when someone yelled the space shuttle blew up. We were shocked, saddened and my son now 41 never forgot that day.
@@Sorbet_TheFurry The announcer assumed everything was happening normally in the launch as he was looking at telemetry on a computer screen rather than watching the actual liftoff. When telemetry info was lost, they then looked to see what was wrong. They are trained to remain calm under pressure, especially when they are heard or seen by the public such as a broadcast.
I was 5 years old and watched this live on TV. I lived in Florida at the time and I swear you could still see that erie Y pattern in the sky for days after...
You’re 100% right. Yes I remember exactly what I was doing. I was laying in bed watching TV we had a snow day from school here in Pa. I still remember the conditions outside. It was sunny and beautiful but snow everywhere from the overnight snowstorm then it came on TV. I’ll never forget that terrible day. They kept showing it over, over and over again on TV. I cried.
I was a young single guy living in an apartment. I woke up that morning with the flu. I called off sick that morning. Since I had a waterbed, I grabbed a blanket, and went downstairs to watch a little TV. I turned it on just in time to see the launch.
Sitting here with my 50 year old self, watching this in the eyes of my 12 year old self. I wanted to be an astronaut because of Christa McAuliffe. I watched the Shuttle live in school with my classmates. But when that shuttle explode it, I was filled with tears. It was then that I decided that I wanted no part of the space program ever again. Tears a streaming down my face as I post this. Those feelings of a 12 year old girl in grief are present right now.
I was in 6th grade in 1986, our science teacher had most of 5th & 6th graders piled in the classroom to watch the launch. We were all in shock and glued to the TV until school was over.
Hey, your thumbnail shows the shuttle nearly intact, and breaking up in recognizable parts... That's really disingenuous, as I was watching live in the library of our elementary school, and everyone has seen the footage of the explosion. That fireball where the two boosters are flying ahead, creating a 'Y' shape, IS THE SHUTTLE in hundreds of thousands of pieces. The survival systems which are connected to the spacesuits, and carried like a briefcase with hose for each astronaut was activated by several people, they discovered upon retrieval of the remains of the astronauts. They were alive for the fall back to earth in, all probability. In a remarkably stupid and arrogant move, the NASA administration rejected direct calls and a decision by the expert engineers from Thiokol, the manufacturer of the solid rocket boosters, to scrub the flight snd mission until another day, because the shuttle had never flown in such cold temperatures, ever. Since your docu-short isn't over 10 minutes, perhaps it's better to remake it with better information, than present it with subpar standards. Have a great day. 😎🇺🇸
I suggest you do not give people any correct information. People hate being confronted with the truth. Humans are all about clickbait and abracadabra. :)
Yeup. I agree with all that. I remember the lead up to the launch. As a 12 year old kid obsessed with everything space, I was hyped about seeing the first school teacher go up on the coolest ride possible. I'll never forget that moment my excitement turned to shock and sadness. Especially seeing Christa's parents faces, absolutely shattered. That's what happens when you don't put safety first all the time! NASA had a big shakeup and some heads rolled after that very unfortunate day.
A couple of points. Technically, Challenger itself did not explode. The External Tank collapsed due to aerodynamic forces as it had been punctured by one of the SRBs which caused the tank to lose its structural integrity. The cloud you could see in the sky was a water vapour cloud caused by the oxygen and hydrogen in the tank combining. The pressure wave from the bursting tank forced the orbiter (Challenger) away from the tank and into the supersonic airstream. This caused Challenger to be broken apart by excessive aerodynamic forces,. So it too, didn't technically explode, although some of the hypergolic propellants in the manouevring thrusters did ignite when those tanks ruptured. These smaller explosions happened because Challenger was already breaking up. Finally, Shuttle astronauts never carried those "suitcase" devices you described. They were used on Mercury, Gemni and Apollo because those spacecraft had a pure oxygen atmosphere. The crew had to pre-breathe pure oxygen for an hour or so before being installed in the spacecraft. Otherwise they might have got the bends. The Shuttle used an ordinary oxygen/nitrogen air mix so pre-breathing was not necessary. The emergency oxygen system you are referring to was in a set of packs installed in the cabin of the Orbiter - much like you get in an airliner to allow passengers to breath if the cabin depressurises..
I was in 6th grade and remember the principal coming in the class and quietly telling our teacher “Challenger just blew up”. The tv was brought in later in the morning and we watched the news. It seemed surreal at the time and sad. Watched the news with my dad later at home and was still a bit surreal, but I remember Reagan’s speech to the nation and it still brings a bit of a tear to my eye to think about it.
I was in my early 20's when that incident happened. I was working at a computer assembly line with a group of Iranian. At the moment that happened they started cheering and chanting of joy because of the event. I just looked at them and said to myself, "sick people" how could they do that?
Actually the people on the ground (especially those who had never seen a launch before) thought it was solid rocket booster separation because of how high it was it was hard to see from the ground what was going on up there. Those people were cheering until the launch commentators revealed something had gone terribly wrong.
I was in the 6th grade outside when came back to classroom my teacher brought tv in when we heard spaceshuttle exploded after lift off with Kristy Mcauliffe on board.
May these Heroes Rest Rest in Peace and the Perpetual Light Always Shine on them 🙏🙏🙏 Such a sad story, specially if this catastrophic event could be prevented but danger was ignored 🙁 😔
Hero’s re people who have shown courage outstanding achievement or shown incredible acts of nobility - dying in a spacecraft is non of these things - you are harming the memory of people who where real hero’s who where courageous or achieved amazing feats by lumping a bunch of dead people in this group as if being blown up is heroic
I get it they died and you miss them and want to show respect and admiration for their memory - but that doesn’t ,are them hero’s - being blown up isn’t courageous since they didn’t know it was happening nor is it an achievement and it’s not an act of nobility so mathematically objectively you don’t know what the word hero means
It’s like when people call fire fighters hero’s - as a cop for 22 years I have worked with the fire department daily - basically all they do is cook chilli and sleep. I think besides arbitrary calls like medical assistance which is handled by EMT in 22 years as a cop I’ve seen the fire department get a real call regarding a real fore maybe 5 times - the rest of the time they just cook chilli - yet they are hero’s - why because they died in 9/11 - DYING is t heroic - look it up this isn’t my option words have unilateral meaning
My ex is a McAuliffe. Christa was his dad's cousin's wife. I was in kindergarten when this happened and watched it on tv. Since then I was drawn to it. I never thought I would be dating someone from the family. They state they never found the bodies but I doubt that. These individuals were alive and they even had a tape script of the 2 mins it took for the crew cabin to hit the waster. NASA denied the existence of the tape but the transcripts look legit. They warned NASA the cold would effect it and it did. Just so sad. Then as I'm older Columbia doesn't make it through re-entry. Again NASA said oh that foam that fell during liftoff and hit the wing was nothing until someone did an actual test and it showed at that speed it punched a hole in the wing. Just awful. That doesn't even count Apollo 1 where the first 3 astronauts died due to the door not opening. It was such a hazard in the beginning, more so than now. Poor Christa's parents, sister, hubby, and kids. Not to mention her students.
@@gatt2b Honestly there is always going to people out there that think everything is an inside job. I’m not going to give those loser trolls the satisfaction of responding to them. It’s the same people that try to instill fear saying 9/11 was an inside job even though someone in my town was on flight 11. I also have friends that were there who saw the attacks at the trade center who now live near me south of Boston. It’s like the guy who got sued for stating Sandy Hook was a fake situation even though innocent kids died. It will never end because those people want to sound important and get people to believe them. It’s always men. I think they are trying to compensate for having a small penis. Christa and the rest of the crew died. It never should of happened and the crew warned NASA but the individuals that called the shot let them fly anyway because of money. The O ring was faulty and probably got damaged from the extreme cold the night before. Christa’s parents, sister, and her husband were there on the stands. You can see that in the video. UA-cam is the worst place for trolls and they aren’t all young kids. A lot of them are adults who have nothing better to do than shame innocent lives. I’d like someone to say it to my face that it was all fake.
@@davidimhoff2118 you may have seen that documentary saying they were alive sure if you dont fact check it yeah it looks real but if they only use their brains they would find that the people were actually family members years later ya know we all have family that look alike I'm sorry both of these tragedies hit so close to you especially people you knew..On 911 people died and real planes hit those towers only thing I realized within a couple of hours is that what we we're being told couldn't possibly have happened that way and that always bothered me people would say I was being disrespectful to the one's that lost there lives when in truth I want justice for those poor people that lost their lives and the thruth is out there follow the money trail and you will see who's really behind that horrible day
All those brave soles,the launch should have been delayed due to extreme weather conditions that damaged the o-rings on the booster rockets. If I remember correctly the flight was already delayed twice and NASA pushed to get it off the ground and disregarded engineers advice not to go ahead with the launch. How very sad that we can't listen to the people who know what they are talking about
Yes, the O-Rings had contracted (shrunk) due to the cold. Had the launch been delayed until later in the day when the temperature had warmed up, the O-Rings would have expanded back to their original size and this disaster would have been avoided.
For more than a year before this tragedy there was a nation wide search for a teacher candidate for this mission. At one time many teachers had the chance to go but since there was a teacher onboard this was broadcast in every school live. Sad day for everyone
I predicted it was going to happen. I was in Aspen on a ski trip with a buddy. We were getting ready to go the slopes when we saw on the news that the shuttle was going to launch. When I heard that, I said "That thing is going to blow up?" He looked at me, shocked, and ask why I would say such a thing. I told him we'd been shooting up those rockets for years and it was just a matter of time. Sure enough, when we got to the slopes, it was being replayed on television.
There were some on the project who objected to the launch that day due to the past problems of the o-rings losing elasticity that were noted on previous Shuttle launches. However those objectors (one was a Norton Thiokol engineer), we're overruled by the majority who pushed through the launch. That tactic, called "Group Think" doomed the shuttle crew.
No unfortunately they "weren't out cold" & likely knew they weren't going to make it. I won't go into detail as others have already told the details but the a couple air packs inside the cabin were opened manually properly by Judy Resnick in her role as flight. engineer
I remember the instant I heard of the disaster. A a coworker came into the edit bay where i was editing and said the shuttle had gone roman candle. I asked what he meant and he said it blew up. I immediately went to a tv and watched the replay over and over. Such sad day.
Having handled the insurance claim I got to see the report presented to Reagan and what the Government didn’t reveal was that majority of the crew actually drowned when the cabin pod was blasted into the ocean. Was very sad and completely avoidable unfortunately.
Falling from 46000 feet i would have to say they died when they hit the surface of the water, as one of the engineers had stated during the investigation.
@@MrDynafxdc as I actually read the report that was given to President Reagan you are uninformed as was the engineer! Water was found in the lungs of several of the crew members therefore proving death by drowning! The public was informed that everyone died instantly because that’s what they want to hear and the alternative would be too upsetting leading to accusations of not rescuing them in time. So go back under your rock you weren’t an insider on this!
I was a young 22 and was at work at a Lowe's store. We were all gathered in the electronics dept with all the TV's and this was on Live TV. Definitely a sad day. When VCR's were obtainable I bought one of the first ones and recorded every launch and return landing of the shuttles Anytime it was available on TV. Was always amazing-take off like a rocket and land land like a glider plane. Miss those good ole days
Five engineers with Morton Thiokol warned NASA this would happen with temperature below 53 degrees. NASA did not listen because they put the program before human beings. Said it was worth the risks.
I have ve worked there after the challenger and I had family who was working there at the time of the disaster my aunt Lee was telling us all about what had happened and she was a safety engineer for Thiokol at the time. If you can notice there are 2 separate rockets going in separate directions those are the solid rocket motors. I will let you make your own decisions.
I still remember this day as it was yesterday, I was in the third grade, my whole class were focused in on the TV, finally the count down started, 10, 9, 8, etc, etc,1, we have lift off, we stared at the TV and all of a sudden our teachers run to the big box heavy 19 inch TV on the cart and turns the TV OFF. She didn't give us no reason why she turned it off or anything, but when I got home I heard my parents discussing it and it made me so sad because the teacher that lost her life in that flight
I am utterly devastated by such a failure and I also say such negligence took place! The victims are always those who do a good job and they become a victim of others' negligence. RIP dear souls!
I was in the 5th grade and the whole school had tvs on stands in every classroom to watch live....I remember the weird looks on everyone's faces when it exploded.....
A day of pride and glory ended 73 seconds later. I cried 'No!' Silence. Shock and terror. Tears for the victims and their families. Continued prayers for the families and honor to the victims.
I was eating lunch in the 10th grade watching the broadcast on TV live, Such a sad day for sure😢😢 We drove down 3 times from Ohio 1982-1991 to watch it take off live❤
I picked up a load at Cape Canaveral few years ago. And omg I didn't know then that I was in the area where this happened. Until I found this video just now. Wow. Can't describe what I feel at the moment
I’d like to thank whomever is responsible for this video for being so thoughtful of the families of the Challengers crew who gets to see this and be reminded of even more horrible morbid details like the likely terror they probably experienced from being conscious….?..You Rock dude…
I was 9 when this happened, I barely remember it. Don't know if we were watching at school, we probably were. I know my family had a beach trip planned for that weekend tho and I remember drawing a picture about it, as kids often do. And my parents talking to me about it.... So sad, that crew and the teacher, so excited about going to space.
I was in my office cubicle working when I overheard someone say while standing at the copy machine, "did you hear the shuttle exploded?". I assumed that person was setting up some kind of sick joke.
I was 40 years old and came out of the drugstore crying because it was announced over the radio inside. Before that I had a series of dreams of a shuttle blowing up and what caused it. The cause in my dreams was a solid rocket booster but didn't give any specifics about faulty O'rings. I found out about those later at the time of the explosion and they wouldn't have been faulty if NASA followed the guidelines for the outside operating temperature range of the O'rings. Just another one of NASA's screw ups which finally ended the shuttle program with Columbia. In fact this is still very fresh on my mind. One night when I was going to work and listening to the radio something really strange came on over the music. The word's rang out "Go with throttle up" and then I started hearing the music again. This happened not too long after the Challenger explosion. The Challenger explosion as well as the loss of Columbia will be forever etched in my mind. I also had a series of dreams about Columbia even naming that shuttle in my dreams. I made some predictions on line as well. I contacted NASA about my dreams and no one wanted to listen to me except this one lady and apparently she was cut off because she was the only one that was listening to me. There is also another dream I had where one of the astronauts survived this somehow where NASA gave him a new name an location keeping everything a secret. Things seem to be pointing to Ronald McNair. After all he would of had the best chance of survival being near the hatch on Middeck during launch. I think all of the astronauts had access to portable oxygen supplies as well, but will have to check again. Yes I have dream diaries with these dreams that are dated, I have documentation of these dreams coming to pass. But it is the Ronald McNair dream that is still up in the air and maybe one day that will surface too. I always felt like there was a reason that I had these dreams and tried to reach out to NASA who ignored me. This is one of the best videos I have seen about the Challenger accident. Thank you so much.
6:50: That's not clear since emergency devices have been found activated. We will never know but it's highly probable that they remained conscious much more than we would wisk. Very chilling news and very sad. 7:45: It's not "NASA's International Space Station". It's international which means, by definition, that there are other countries involved, let's say EuropeanSA and Russia to make it short. So it should have been said "NASA's part" in the construction of the ISS. Not everything is American ... 9:05: "They are heroes": it's probably cultural but this kind of statement always surprises me, to say the least. In my culture (and my language) they are victims, not heroes. Heroe is related to great bravery at war or rescuing people at the risk of your life in extreme conditions, things like that. It's very exceptional. I have the greatest respect for the Challenger crew but they were seated in the vehicle, everything was routine, as usual, and suddenly ... it exploded! Where is the heroism? The problem is that, using the word heroe at every opportunity makes it very difficult to distinguish a real heroe from a victim ... Somehow that's not fair because if everybody is a heroe, there are no more heroes. My view. Regards
Agree, they'd be heroes had they known in advance that their mission was not safe , take very high riskier than other missions and they still devoting to do. Also I don't think they didn't wear pressure suit during flight. In Russia cosmonauts wear full pressure suit both up and down orbit flight.
Good points. As regards the space station, during the 1980s the concept of an ISS had not yet been developed, so the station the shuttle was intended to serve would indeed have been NASA's alone. It was going to be called Alpha until Ronald Reagan approved the name Freedom as a cordial response to that of the USSR's project, launched in the year of the Challenger disaster. No-one dislikes the term "hero" more than the astronauts themselves, but they would probably settle for pioneer. Still, it's hard to argue that the first astronauts were not heroes, trusting their lives to rockets with highly unstable safety records as unmanned launch vehicles, and that being so, their Soviet counterparts deserve the same accolade.
@@Sootaroot Yes, agreed. I have no problem with a NASA space station alone but it cannot be the "NASA ISS" as stated: it's contradictory, just a matter of vocabulary. Same applies to "hero": in my mind this designation has to be exceptional: heroism is related to circumstances. You are not a hero because you have been killed, you are a hero because you have been killed when doing something outstanding. Regarding the first astronauts I agree with you: it was indeed a different story at the time and in fact Gagarine was promoted "Hero of the Soviet Union", which was deserved.
At the time I was just a little kid in Portugal and remember vividly seeing this on the news. This event has always been ingrained in my mind. Was interesting to read some of the comments here.
I stood outside my apt,in Ft Lauderdale,and sadly saw it happen.Ran back inside to see what was happening.Very sad day.I still miss the Shuttles tho.I have seen ,not on TV,quite a few Shuttle launches,the best being at night.
I was sitting in Jensen Beach Florida on a.resturant patio watching the explosion as it happened, This was a Horrible accident that could of been Avoided, the engineers who designed the O-rings said they would probably fail because of the freezing temperatures and nobody believed them henceforth the disaster occurred as a result of suden mechanical failure, Rip Eternal peace Brave crew members your sacrifices will never be forgotten ♦️♦️♦️‼️
I remember when it happened we were all in shock but just thinking of the trauma the school kids must have felt while watching it live on TV is the worst part n
It was crazy that my grandma was watching it because she was a teacher and she watched the whole thing. The school went silent when it exploded and the three pieces.
Biggest misconception was they died instantly in the explosion which they didn’t. The cabin was ejected and most if not all of them were still alive all the way down to the ocean for those 3 plus minutes. Worst possible way to die almost
One important item wasn't mentioned but one of the engineers warned weeks earlier that one of the O-rings was defective and if used, the spacecraft would at some point explode. I don't remember his name but there was a fair warning yet, the spacecraft was still launched. I felt bad about it. Money talks!
I remember this as one of my earliest memories on a 19 inch knob tv....I was 4 or 5 not quite understanding what happened or why my parents were upset.
I was a senior in high school in 86. Watching this unfold with the whole class. It was a sad day. We really didn’t say to much about it as it happened. The days to come brought many opinions and discussions. Always looked at space exploration different after this. God bless the crew.
And I was. Freshman in H. S. I remember that day like it was yesterday. What a horrific event in our lives. I differ on space exploration. It is necessary as far as I am concerned. Man never wants to stop looking and learning, and reaching for something bigger than him. It is amazing these people who strap them selves to essentially a bomb, and ride that sucker to space! Awe inspiring to say the least.
@@whitewalker57 I was a freshman too. My brother and I skipped school and watched it live. I remember seeing a parachute and thought everything would be okay. When I turned and saw his face, I realized nobody survived.
I was in 1st grade and witness my teachers reaction as it happened .. I knew at that young age it was by their tears in their eyes
I was in the 4th grade. They rolled out the big TV and watched this. This is very sad.
I was a senior as well . Never will forget that horrific day..may all the heroes RIP
Remember watching this live back in the day. Have never forgotten it. Especially as one was a school teacher, with their class watching.
Today is February 1st. Which happens to be the 19th anniversary of the Space Shuttle Colombia tragedy too. When it broke up returning home.
These pioneers will never be forgotten. Heroes, one and all. Respect.
Me too; watched it live in my fourth grade classroom
Poor christa and family. And the others, and their loved ones.
@@nhdoodle3167. Never forgotten.
I was standing on the beach just south of Cape Canaveral and saw this happen right before my eyes. It was a horrible moment I'll never forget, watching pieces fall into the ocean.
I watched it too Kathy. I was in Jacksonville on the USS Simpson. I knew we were just a few miles from Cape Canaveral, so I went topside to get a real view. Everyone else remained down below watching it on television. Once I realized what I had seen, I ran back inside to hear everyone freaking out. About two days later, we joined the Coast Guard to recover pieces of Challenger. We recovered Christa McCullough’s briefcase, and many other pieces. We had two hanger bays full of debris. We weren’t even allowed to look at it though.
I know what you must have felt Kathy Molloy I m sure there was a sense of disappointment felt then The school teacher making it into space and bringing back a lesson for her students I m sure smiles had turned to tears I remember hearing what happened that morning I talked to a girl later about what happened She said they were all dead What happened 17 years later on February 1st 2003 was unprecedented No American astronauts had ever died upon re entry Take it easy
Oh no
@@johnwilliams1223wow that's real history in the making you were part of. would you happen to know how soon the recovery started?
Oh wow, that’s terrible, my dad told me he saw the fist launch of challenger
The real reason that Challenger failed was the fact that the 12 foot O-Rings had contracted due to the cold temperature and had not had time to regain their normal size before liftoff. Had the liftoff been 3 to 4 hours later when the temperature had warmed, the O-Rings would have resealed and the disaster would have been avoided. Larger O-Rings are temperature sensitive and expand or contract depending on the temperature of the environment. Fault lies solely on the persons who ordered the liftoff during such cold conditions, not the manufacturers of the O-Rings that were produced and installed to the exact same specifications as all other missions. NASA has a way of directing failures away from themselves.
Just like the Apollo 1 disaster. NASA could not get blamed due to Congressional funding. So a contractor had to be the fall guy. My Grandmother was an Inspector for Rockwell, she worked on the post fire investigation (later retired from Northrup). My Grandfather retired with 25 years from Rockwell as a Supervisor, the year of the Challenger disaster.
That what the video explains. Did you watch it?
@@shawnoandrew Watch what?
@@shwngbr At the time of the disasterous launch, news reports say the blame was with the flight planners who were under a time pressure of being able to launch the shuttles every 14 days. There was no provision for the low external temperatures that fatally affected the o ring seals in the solid fuel boosters.
I know you are upset over the fact that whoever made a mistake on the shuttle launching too early resulting in fatalities. I'm sorry they suffered a violent death. But just know that they're at peace with Jesus in Heaven. May God bless you. 🙏
Watching this now as someone who is almost a teenager, is honestly heartbreaking. It’s disappointing they don’t teach us about space anymore in school, and show the heartbreaking truth of space exploration. I wish they did. Rest in peace challenger crew 💔
It was my first shuttle launch in person.
The most surreal experience I will likely ever have & I’m 51 now (I was 14) at the time.
I watched this in 6th grade. I'm from Framingham Mass. Christa grew up a few miles from my home. My 6th grade teacher was friends with Christa in college. I can't imagine what it was like for my teacher to watch her friends life end on live T.V. .
I was same age excuse me am the same age as you and I knew something bad had happened before the newscommentators did...it was plain at that very moment it was a terrible 😔 tragedy
The thought that some of the crew survived the explosion and didn't die until hitting the water is haunting. Rest in peace.
They were rendered unconscious before that though. Per the video.
@@cocatfan Maybe. Not all of them though. There was evidence that some had tried to access a supply of oxygen. They didn't die immediately. Nobody knows for sure whether any survived the fall or were conscious.
Death was at very least not instantaneous, however. Final communication from the shuttle indicates they were aware something had gone wrong. Terrifying!
@@kruszer They found the switches on Scobee’s control panel were configured for manual flight. He was trying to recover the ship and land it at least at some point before impact.
@@ddbrock9675 Yes that is correct. There is evidence of that.
Did they find any evidence of the bodies or their suits?
I remember watching the launch of Challenger in real time and recall the man saying "go with throttle up." Then the tragedy happened and I was stunned as my right hand instinctively went up to clutch at my throat. My mouth just hung open but I couldn't speak. I sat in silence and tears came streaming down my face. I'll never forget President Reagan speaking at the memorial service and he read from the poem High Flight, "Slipped the surly bonds of earth to touch the face of God." It was an extremely sad time in our country.😭😭
I was 9 years old in New Zealand and I can still remember it and the sadness i felt, like many kids of that time I was fascinated with the space shuttle.
Interestingly, the man that said "go at throttle up" was onboard the first shuttle to launch after the disaster.
They knew the risks. Space is not a very nice place for humans to be.
I was 21 years old working on the gulf coast in Venice Fl. I remember that beautiful cold day well. We went to the store for lunch, got a sandwich came back to the break room & somebody said the Shuttle just blew up. We went outside & even from a couple hundred miles away on the other coast we could see the now infamous smoke plums going in different directions. One of my buddy's even took a picture of it.
I watched if from a roof I was working on from Jupiter about a 100 miles south of the big blow.
I was working for Grumman Areospace at the time. On that day it was as if someone reached into our chests and pulled our hearts out. Although Grumman was only marginally involved in the shuttle program, we had been so intertwined with America’s space program that it effected every one of us personally.
lmao someone pulled your heart out?
saw this live as it happened, totally unexpected, we were in complete shock..it was devastating
I was born in Cocoa FL in 1957 raised in Titusville FL seen many launches in person I was watching this launch in my mothers living room in Sea Level NC it was not the 1st time I had seen a launch go wrong. We lost 3 astronauts during the Apollo missions this was the 1st time we lost 7 astronauts at once sadly it would not be the last time.
IF YOU BELIEVE WE WENT TO THE MOON..UR DUMB
nope. and just wait until we start flying to the moon & mars aftwerwards. we ain't made for space.
I was there, I saw it. It was my first sight of the Shuttle after watching all the test runs through the 70's and early 80's. I was so excited, all of us were. Such a sad day.
My 5th grade teacher was one of the last 10 to be picked in this disaster. I’ll never forget her reaction as we watched in our classroom. Horrifying.
I saw an interview with a NASA physician who said the crew definitely survived until the vehicle hit the ocean. It’s hard to even imagine what went through their heads on the way down! Same with passenger jets on their way down. Unthinkable!!🤔
the physician was fullashit. they weren't wearing suits which meant their blood woulda been boiling in seconds after pressure was lost. I can't imagine a worse way of going. hopefully they lost consciousness almost immediately.
Long time ago, a conference I attended had a keynote speaker that was a former NASA astronaut. Gave an impassioned speech on this. The fault with the 0-rings were a known issue, but the launch proceeded anyway to meet the deadline. NASA had changed their ideology from the Mercury program of "Prove every system and backup system is fully functional and ready to go before we okay the launch" to "Prove that systems will fail before we halt the launch". His summation was more eloquent than my recollection. Hard lesson to learn.
When engineering and science take their orders from politicians trying to win elections, shit goes wrong. We see it today as well.
A chain of critical events cause the damage and exploded together with the dreams and high expectations. Brave souls. I still remember read in papers one of the crew team the teacher said, traveling outer space is more safer than driving a car in US. She was so confident. May their soul rest in peace. ♥️✌
Reading in the what?
Obviously she didn’t know what she was getting herself into. Anything to do with space is dangerous. Just trying to lift off the ground is a mission on its own.
Before I say my piece, I just want to say that I 100% fully believe & understand that when it comes to Human beings evolving, Progressing, and Advancing as a species there are risks involved, Dangerous risks. ESPECIALLY when it comes to space travel (obviously). We are humans...literally the only "Self-Aware" species we know exists, and since the first modern humans showed up 200,000 years ago we've been "Explorers". It's in our nature...almost in a way, wired into our Brains/DNA to always be "Curious" about the world & the universe we exist in. Unfortunately, the brave men & women put themselves in an exceedingly larger amount of danger exploring places like the deep ocean or Outer Space, (and I believe that all 7 Crew Members of Challenger STS-51-L were fully aware of the risks in traveling to space, no doubt).
What I have an issue with is the fact that the Government Big Wigs & NASA Big wigs were warned by the Lead Engineer who worked on the part of Challenger where those O-Rings were located the day/night before launch, and then AGAIN the day/morning of launch...and that Engineer told them plain as day "those O-rings have a Low-End Temperature Tolerance of 53 Degrees Fahrenheit! It's going to be in the 30's all night before launch and a large portion of the morning the day of launch. Those O-Rings WILL FAIL if you do not postpone the launch of STS-51-L"....and because NASA was understandably behind schedule on this mission, the big wigs decided not to listen to the NASA Engineers WHO ACTUALLY BUILT THE DAMN THING and knew what they were talking about, and the big wigs also ultimately decided that the 7 brave Astronauts Lives were worth risking just to keep the Governments scheduling demands...(and I know the Government was funding the whole SLS Program, but is not rescheduling the launch REALLY worth 7 Astronauts & fellow human beings lives?!?!?!)
I understand we can't reverse time, what happened can't be changed. We can't alter the past, we can only learn from the mistakes we make and God willing, not make those same mistakes. I guess my point is that we all as humans need to have a little more consideration & respect for each other and all life itself....otherwise, we will never last as an "Advancing Species".
R.I.P. Michael J. Smith, Dick Scobee, Ronald E. McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Christa McAuliffe, Gregory Jarvis, Judith Resnik.
nobody was inside the shuttle, nobody is ever inside them, they never go to space, the firmament is real, Copernicus lied, earth is concave, time to wakeup
It was 100% human failure. The manager of the company that built the solid rocket boosters Morton Thiokol or something like that, he's probably 100% responsible for that disaster. I mean, his engineers were warning that launching in such cold temperatures is a big risk. And what did they do? They launched to stay in schedule. Great decision not to hear what the developper of the solid rocket boosters were thinking. This was the actual tragedy of that disaster. Unbelievable..I'm not sure if it really was like that I mean I wasnt even alive before 1988, but as far as I have heard this was the case, and also what Suzuki wrote
Remember this sad day in Jan 1986 here in UK , i was 25 and will never forget.
I was in 5th grade watching the launch in school live when the shuttle exploded, I couldn't believe my eyes. My teacher was crying the whole day after that, I'll never forget it...RIP to all the crew.
My dad did aswell, and his teacher didn't know I'd happen so when it happened most of his classmates started crying... And the bad thing about the woman was that there was a teacher on board aswell...
I was in 4th grade at school and had a simile experience, but we weren’t watching it. Some teachers were in the teachers lounge and watching it. One came in and told us what happened. They all crying. I remember feeling sad. There was a teacher on board and also Ronald McNair who went to NC A&T which is in my home town. I later graduated from that college.
I was in grade 7 when this had happened
@trading paints My dad was 4. He remembers his teachers watching it and then they found out about the malfunction and they didn't let the kids watch it but they watched it themselfs, they were showing it because there was a teacher on the ride. It was upsetting for him and it still is.
I remember the day crystaline. I was working in a warehouse in Toronto drivin' a forklift that had a small portable radio on the dash. The station cut to the news bulletin. Within minutes my co-workers and I had gathered around a TV on the lunch table and sat glued to the broadcast. All worked stopped for several hours. Up until 9/11 it was one of those rare moments that stays forever in memory. RIP to the crew of STS-51-L. 😓😓😓😓😓😓😓
Slag can stop a complete break through of hot gas and flame. They went through a strong jet stream as well which shook the spece ship badly ,loosening the slag.Thats why the smoke stopped then started again then burned through after going through the jet stream.This had been reported by an earlier commercial flight as well. They didn't even rap the vulnerable parts before launch .Like you would rap a racing car tyre.
Yeah this video was done poorly and wad totally wrong. The explanation was also totally wrong. It should really be taken down. Its pretty garbage.
It wasn't the o-rings that were deadly, it was the persistence to launch under bad or unfavorable conditions.
True, caving in to public pressure as in the medias expectations upon NASA led to a person gambling with the lives of the crew and getting them killed. You know that older gent that operated the room outside the hatch never forgave himself. The day prior was gorgeous and sunny but they had to abort because a screw or something minute and rare occurred and they couldnt get the hafch shut!! This had never happened before, makes one think........ He always felt had he routinely gotten it shut, theyd all had lived. Who knows but a certain Engr at Thiokol was overruled, he said if you launch youre gonna kill them......
Exactly. I thought that immediately as I watched the thing blow from a roof I was working on in Jupiter at the time. It was freezing and we were a 100 miles south of the cape.
Sadly, a friend of mine was one of the NASA guys who worked on the O-ring design…he was so traumatized by what he felt was his fault that he has spent the rest of his life paying amends. He carries this moment with him with every breath he takes.
In this type of accident, it would be wrong to take it to heart because this situation had never been an issue right up until it happened. The same can be said for the space shuttle that burned up on re-entry into the atmosphere, with hindsight, this could have also been prevented. These 2 disasters highlight the many dangers faced in space exploration and if NASA had learned from them, there would have been a new series of space vehicles instead of Elon Musk's company.
You should write books, the drama is incredible
Well to give him credit, he warned the higher ups, not to launch that day and they ignored him, so it isn't his fault at all, he shouldn't blame himself, there was nothing he could have done, the idiots ignored his warning of the o rings.
@@Sam-Samington smartest youtube replier
I was home from school, sick that day ( lived in Tampa) my dad and I went outside to watch the shuttle go up, and saw the explosion. We weren't sure what happened at that point, I just remember my dad saying, that's not right..something bad has happened.. Sure enough, when we walked back in the house, it was all over the T.V. RIP to those brave souls, and to their families..
I was in 1st grade and was watching the launch live in class. Once the shuttle exploded my teacher quickly turned off the TV. We all kept asking her what happened but she wouldn't answer us. Something I still remember clearly.
I was in grade 2. We were all bawling over the thought that a teacher had died, since we loved our teacher. First real reckoning with death.
SHES DUMB FOR NOT LEAVING THE TV ON
@@leelunk8235 You're dumb and don't have a friggin BRAIN, you ass!
@@Mrd9960 YOUR COMMENT GOT REMOVED FOR BEING DUM.B HOW DO YOU FEEL NOW
@@leelunk8235 😂😂😂USE ALL CAPS THERE BUDDY, LIKE I CAN'T SEE TOO GOOD, IF IT'S SMALL LETTERS, LMAO!!!
Given the risks involved in spaceflight, it's incredible that only a few astronauts have not made it back in all the many journeys into space. Always wondered why there was no provision for escape in the space shuttles. The Apollo rockets had a booster on top of the command module so that in the even of an accident, they could safely release this capsule from the service module and parachute down into the sea.
An escape module on the shuttle was deemed impossible by design engineers, as it would weaken the integrity of the vehicle. The vehicle would not have been able to withstand the stresses of launch and re-entry.
@@hughblanchard6464 .
@@hughblanchard6464 That's unfortunate as the 2 shuttle accidents hastened the end of this particular method of spacecraft launches and paved the way for private space flight, something that several astronauts including Neil Armstrong (before he passed away) spoke out against.
IMO, the numbers aren't great. 2 of the 5 (40%) functional shuttles failed. This is 2 of the 135 missions, or a failure for every 68 missions flown. Imagine if you and your spouse bought the same kind of car and both of them exploded and killed you after just 68 commutes to work.
@@fiveightandtenWell cars don't have massive tanks of liquid gasses to ignite if something goes wrong. Once heard that if cars were built to the same high specifications that spacecraft were constructed by, motor vehicles would last for very much longer than they do now.
My mom, myself and my little three yr old boy were camped at the Salton Sea. We were walking in camp when someone yelled the space shuttle blew up. We were shocked, saddened and my son now 41 never forgot that day.
DID YOU HAVE POPCORN
@@leelunk8235 what for? The salton sea is in Southern California.
@@davidleonard8369 DID YOU HAVE POPCORN WATCHING THE EXPLOSION
@@leelunk8235 no I did not. I died several years before the challenger accident and there’s no popcorn in hell. I did see cornpop there though.
I'll never forget this happening. It's burned into my mind forever. It was just horrific 😢 😭 😞
I remember this moment. I was then 6 years old. Our country, the USSR, mourned with you. And the September 11 attacks. This is terrible. Peace to you.
@@cecilfoxhound3274 The main thing is not to grow old in soul.
Same year as Chernobyl. We mourned for the USSR as well and those brave souls who died trying to keep it under control.
@@p0llenp0ny Thanks bro.
I was in college when this happened and will never forget watching the broadcast and learning of this horrible news. 😪
Couldn't believe how calm the announcer was during the explosion.
He did not have a visual of the flight....He was looking at a screen of data.
@@dwi189 still though! Don’t you think they would’ve been crying?!
@@Sorbet_TheFurry The announcer assumed everything was happening normally in the launch as he was looking at telemetry on a computer screen rather than watching the actual liftoff.
When telemetry info was lost, they then looked to see what was wrong.
They are trained to remain calm under pressure, especially when they are heard or seen by the public such as a broadcast.
@@dwi189 ohhhh
@@Sorbet_TheFurry the announcer didn’t knew about the accident
I was 5 years old and watched this live on TV. I lived in Florida at the time and I swear you could still see that erie Y pattern in the sky for days after...
One of those days in a lifetime that you remember exactly were you were when it happened.
I was having a beer with OJ Simpson when it happened at the Gold and Silver Pawan Shop
You’re 100% right. Yes I remember exactly what I was doing. I was laying in bed watching TV we had a snow day from school here in Pa. I still remember the conditions outside. It was sunny and beautiful but snow everywhere from the overnight snowstorm then it came on TV. I’ll never forget that terrible day. They kept showing it over, over and over again on TV. I cried.
Where you were*
Yep. I remember 9/11
I was a young single guy living in an apartment. I woke up that morning with the flu. I called off sick that morning. Since I had a waterbed, I grabbed a blanket, and went downstairs to watch a little TV. I turned it on just in time to see the launch.
Sitting here with my 50 year old self, watching this in the eyes of my 12 year old self. I wanted to be an astronaut because of Christa McAuliffe. I watched the Shuttle live in school with my classmates. But when that shuttle explode it, I was filled with tears. It was then that I decided that I wanted no part of the space program ever again. Tears a streaming down my face as I post this. Those feelings of a 12 year old girl in grief are present right now.
Still a very difficult watch even after all these years 😥😥
I was in 6th grade in 1986, our science teacher had most of 5th & 6th graders piled in the classroom to watch the launch. We were all in shock and glued to the TV until school was over.
Hey, your thumbnail shows the shuttle nearly intact, and breaking up in recognizable parts...
That's really disingenuous, as I was watching live in the library of our elementary school, and everyone has seen the footage of the explosion.
That fireball where the two boosters are flying ahead, creating a 'Y' shape, IS THE SHUTTLE in hundreds of thousands of pieces.
The survival systems which are connected to the spacesuits, and carried like a briefcase with hose for each astronaut was activated by several people, they discovered upon retrieval of the remains of the astronauts.
They were alive for the fall back to earth in, all probability.
In a remarkably stupid and arrogant move, the NASA administration rejected direct calls and a decision by the expert engineers from Thiokol, the manufacturer of the solid rocket boosters, to scrub the flight snd mission until another day, because the shuttle had never flown in such cold temperatures, ever.
Since your docu-short isn't over 10 minutes, perhaps it's better to remake it with better information, than present it with subpar standards.
Have a great day.
😎🇺🇸
I suggest you do not give people any correct information. People hate being confronted with the truth. Humans are all about clickbait and abracadabra. :)
Yeup. I agree with all that. I remember the lead up to the launch. As a 12 year old kid obsessed with everything space, I was hyped about seeing the first school teacher go up on the coolest ride possible. I'll never forget that moment my excitement turned to shock and sadness. Especially seeing Christa's parents faces, absolutely shattered. That's what happens when you don't put safety first all the time! NASA had a big shakeup and some heads rolled after that very unfortunate day.
A couple of points.
Technically, Challenger itself did not explode. The External Tank collapsed due to aerodynamic forces as it had been punctured by one of the SRBs which caused the tank to lose its structural integrity. The cloud you could see in the sky was a water vapour cloud caused by the oxygen and hydrogen in the tank combining.
The pressure wave from the bursting tank forced the orbiter (Challenger) away from the tank and into the supersonic airstream. This caused Challenger to be broken apart by excessive aerodynamic forces,. So it too, didn't technically explode, although some of the hypergolic propellants in the manouevring thrusters did ignite when those tanks ruptured. These smaller explosions happened because Challenger was already breaking up.
Finally, Shuttle astronauts never carried those "suitcase" devices you described. They were used on Mercury, Gemni and Apollo because those spacecraft had a pure oxygen atmosphere. The crew had to pre-breathe pure oxygen for an hour or so before being installed in the spacecraft. Otherwise they might have got the bends. The Shuttle used an ordinary oxygen/nitrogen air mix so pre-breathing was not necessary. The emergency oxygen system you are referring to was in a set of packs installed in the cabin of the Orbiter - much like you get in an airliner to allow passengers to breath if the cabin depressurises..
@@EricIrl please
@@davidobrien6911 Please what?
I was in 6th grade and remember the principal coming in the class and quietly telling our teacher “Challenger just blew up”. The tv was brought in later in the morning and we watched the news. It seemed surreal at the time and sad. Watched the news with my dad later at home and was still a bit surreal, but I remember Reagan’s speech to the nation and it still brings a bit of a tear to my eye to think about it.
I was in my early 20's when that incident happened. I was working at a computer assembly line with a group of Iranian. At the moment that happened they started cheering and chanting of joy because of the event. I just looked at them and said to myself, "sick people" how could they do that?
Actually the people on the ground (especially those who had never seen a launch before) thought it was solid rocket booster separation because of how high it was it was hard to see from the ground what was going on up there. Those people were cheering until the launch commentators revealed something had gone terribly wrong.
Bro you're lying
I was in the 6th grade outside when came back to classroom my teacher brought tv in when we heard spaceshuttle exploded after lift off with Kristy Mcauliffe on board.
May these Heroes Rest Rest in Peace and the Perpetual Light Always Shine on them 🙏🙏🙏
Such a sad story, specially if this catastrophic event could be prevented but danger was ignored 🙁 😔
Hero’s re people who have shown courage outstanding achievement or shown incredible acts of nobility - dying in a spacecraft is non of these things - you are harming the memory of people who where real hero’s who where courageous or achieved amazing feats by lumping a bunch of dead people in this group as if being blown up is heroic
I get it they died and you miss them and want to show respect and admiration for their memory - but that doesn’t ,are them hero’s - being blown up isn’t courageous since they didn’t know it was happening nor is it an achievement and it’s not an act of nobility so mathematically objectively you don’t know what the word hero means
It’s like when people call fire fighters hero’s - as a cop for 22 years I have worked with the fire department daily - basically all they do is cook chilli and sleep. I think besides arbitrary calls like medical assistance which is handled by EMT in 22 years as a cop I’ve seen the fire department get a real call regarding a real fore maybe 5 times - the rest of the time they just cook chilli - yet they are hero’s - why because they died in 9/11 - DYING is t heroic - look it up this isn’t my option words have unilateral meaning
I watched it live. My family had just moved to the area. A day that I’ll never forget
My ex is a McAuliffe. Christa was his dad's cousin's wife. I was in kindergarten when this happened and watched it on tv. Since then I was drawn to it. I never thought I would be dating someone from the family. They state they never found the bodies but I doubt that. These individuals were alive and they even had a tape script of the 2 mins it took for the crew cabin to hit the waster. NASA denied the existence of the tape but the transcripts look legit. They warned NASA the cold would effect it and it did. Just so sad. Then as I'm older Columbia doesn't make it through re-entry. Again NASA said oh that foam that fell during liftoff and hit the wing was nothing until someone did an actual test and it showed at that speed it punched a hole in the wing. Just awful. That doesn't even count Apollo 1 where the first 3 astronauts died due to the door not opening. It was such a hazard in the beginning, more so than now. Poor Christa's parents, sister, hubby, and kids. Not to mention her students.
Can you please explain this to the person that denied anybody being on board the shuttle that day
@@gatt2b Honestly there is always going to people out there that think everything is an inside job. I’m not going to give those loser trolls the satisfaction of responding to them. It’s the same people that try to instill fear saying 9/11 was an inside job even though someone in my town was on flight 11. I also have friends that were there who saw the attacks at the trade center who now live near me south of Boston. It’s like the guy who got sued for stating Sandy Hook was a fake situation even though innocent kids died. It will never end because those people want to sound important and get people to believe them. It’s always men. I think they are trying to compensate for having a small penis. Christa and the rest of the crew died. It never should of happened and the crew warned NASA but the individuals that called the shot let them fly anyway because of money. The O ring was faulty and probably got damaged from the extreme cold the night before. Christa’s parents, sister, and her husband were there on the stands. You can see that in the video. UA-cam is the worst place for trolls and they aren’t all young kids. A lot of them are adults who have nothing better to do than shame innocent lives. I’d like someone to say it to my face that it was all fake.
@@davidimhoff2118 you may have seen that documentary saying they were alive sure if you dont fact check it yeah it looks real but if they only use their brains they would find that the people were actually family members years later ya know we all have family that look alike I'm sorry both of these tragedies hit so close to you especially people you knew..On 911 people died and real planes hit those towers only thing I realized within a couple of hours is that what we we're being told couldn't possibly have happened that way and that always bothered me people would say I was being disrespectful to the one's that lost there lives when in truth I want justice for those poor people that lost their lives and the thruth is out there follow the money trail and you will see who's really behind that horrible day
All those brave soles,the launch should have been delayed due to extreme weather conditions that damaged the o-rings on the booster rockets. If I remember correctly the flight was already delayed twice and NASA pushed to get it off the ground and disregarded engineers advice not to go ahead with the launch. How very sad that we can't listen to the people who know what they are talking about
Yes, the O-Rings had contracted (shrunk) due to the cold. Had the launch been delayed until later in the day when the temperature had warmed up, the O-Rings would have expanded back to their original size and this disaster would have been avoided.
Brave what ?
Nothing as emotional as brave footwear.
@@flintymcduff5417 I heard some of the soles actually survived!
Burned in my brain from seeing it live on TV. I bought their patch one year later at Cape Kennedy....
How did you get such a great video of them in the cockpit, amazing!
For more than a year before this tragedy there was a nation wide search for a teacher candidate for this mission. At one time many teachers had the chance to go but since there was a teacher onboard this was broadcast in every school live. Sad day for everyone
I predicted it was going to happen. I was in Aspen on a ski trip with a buddy. We were getting ready to go the slopes when we saw on the news that the shuttle was going to launch. When I heard that, I said "That thing is going to blow up?" He looked at me, shocked, and ask why I would say such a thing. I told him we'd been shooting up those rockets for years and it was just a matter of time. Sure enough, when we got to the slopes, it was being replayed on television.
There were some on the project who objected to the launch that day due to the past problems of the o-rings losing elasticity that were noted on previous Shuttle launches. However those objectors (one was a Norton Thiokol engineer), we're overruled by the majority who pushed through the launch. That tactic, called "Group Think" doomed the shuttle crew.
Born in August 84. One of my first memories is seeing this live on TV. And tbh life got shitter every day since.
Can’t imagine what goes through your mind when the rocket is going down at high speed.
luckily they were out cold from lack of oxygen at that altitude. ( 45,000 feet )
No unfortunately they "weren't out cold" & likely knew they weren't going to make it. I won't go into detail as others have already told the details but the a couple air packs inside the cabin were opened manually properly by Judy Resnick in her role as flight. engineer
@@batsonelectronics the cabin never lost pressure.
I was 18 having lunch at Dennys in San Diego with my grandparents. Heard it on a radio. Couldn't believe it at the time.
I was in Aspen. Ski trip.
I saw it happen live. It was a real shock.
I remember the instant I heard of the disaster. A a coworker came into the edit bay where i was editing and said the shuttle had gone roman candle. I asked what he meant and he said it blew up. I immediately went to a tv and watched the replay over and over. Such sad day.
Having handled the insurance claim I got to see the report presented to Reagan and what the Government didn’t reveal was that majority of the crew actually drowned when the cabin pod was blasted into the ocean. Was very sad and completely avoidable unfortunately.
Falling from 46000 feet i would have to say they died when they hit the surface of the water, as one of the engineers had stated during the investigation.
@@MrDynafxdc as I actually read the report that was given to President Reagan you are uninformed as was the engineer! Water was found in the lungs of several of the crew members therefore proving death by drowning! The public was informed that everyone died instantly because that’s what they want to hear and the alternative would be too upsetting leading to accusations of not rescuing them in time. So go back under your rock you weren’t an insider on this!
Common misconceptions. They essentially died within seconds after losing pressure. they weren't wearing suits their blood would be boiling. Nasty.
@@leecowell8165 read my prior comment to a post - you are absolutely incorrect!
I was a young 22 and was at work at a Lowe's store. We were all gathered in the electronics dept with all the TV's and this was on Live TV. Definitely a sad day. When VCR's were obtainable I bought one of the first ones and recorded every launch and return landing of
the shuttles Anytime it was available on TV. Was always amazing-take off like a rocket
and land land like a glider plane. Miss those good ole days
Five engineers with Morton Thiokol warned NASA this would happen with temperature below 53 degrees. NASA did not listen because they put the program before human beings. Said it was worth the risks.
I have ve worked there after the challenger and I had family who was working there at the time of the disaster my aunt Lee was telling us all about what had happened and she was a safety engineer for Thiokol at the time. If you can notice there are 2 separate rockets going in separate directions those are the solid rocket motors. I will let you make your own decisions.
The weirdest thing is, no NASA officials who ordered the launch command was prosecuted.
I cried 😢 38 years ago
I still remember this day as it was yesterday, I was in the third grade, my whole class were focused in on the TV, finally the count down started, 10, 9, 8, etc, etc,1, we have lift off, we stared at the TV and all of a sudden our teachers run to the big box heavy 19 inch TV on the cart and turns the TV OFF. She didn't give us no reason why she turned it off or anything, but when I got home I heard my parents discussing it and it made me so sad because the teacher that lost her life in that flight
I am utterly devastated by such a failure and I also say such negligence took place! The victims are always those who do a good job and they become a victim of others' negligence. RIP dear souls!
I was in the 5th grade and the whole school had tvs on stands in every classroom to watch live....I remember the weird looks on everyone's faces when it exploded.....
That was a very sad day we lost astronauts on the shuttle our thoughts and prayers go to the family that lost there love one's that day
I wasn't quite 2 years old yet. So obviously i dont have aby personal memories of this. However warching this brings tears to my eyes! 😢
A day of pride and glory ended 73 seconds later. I cried 'No!' Silence. Shock and terror. Tears for the victims and their families. Continued prayers for the families and honor to the victims.
I was eating lunch in the 10th grade watching the broadcast on TV live, Such a sad day for sure😢😢 We drove down 3 times from Ohio 1982-1991 to watch it take off live❤
Будут безсмертны в наших сердцах , покорители Вселенной .Скорбим .😭.
Да, они будут
I picked up a load at Cape Canaveral few years ago. And omg I didn't know then that I was in the area where this happened. Until I found this video just now. Wow. Can't describe what I feel at the moment
Stupid ?
I remember this event very well and it is really very very sad ! 😮😪
Me too. I saw the entire thing on t.v.
HOW COME THE COMMENTATORS VOICE IS SO COOL? HE DOESN'T SHOW ANY SHOCK OR SURPRISE AT ALL!!!!
I’d like to thank whomever is responsible for this video for being so thoughtful of the families of the Challengers crew who gets to see this and be reminded of even more horrible morbid details like the likely terror they probably experienced from being conscious….?..You Rock dude…
Then don't watch it.
they were not conscious. they lost that as soon as cabin pressure was lost.. within seconds they were never knew what hit them.
I was 9 when this happened, I barely remember it. Don't know if we were watching at school, we probably were. I know my family had a beach trip planned for that weekend tho and I remember drawing a picture about it, as kids often do. And my parents talking to me about it.... So sad, that crew and the teacher, so excited about going to space.
Tive a impressão que ele não continuou subindo, por um tempo ele começou a descer. Muito triste pelas famílias 😢😢.
I was in my office cubicle working when I overheard someone say while standing at the copy machine, "did you hear the shuttle exploded?". I assumed that person was setting up some kind of sick joke.
True heroes ❤️
I remember watching this terrible accident Live 😢 #RIP Challenger Crew 🙏
The music. Hideous
I’ve been to NASA and I watched it live NASA it was so crazy I was so surprised it’s just so sad
I'll never forget this seeing how it happened on my birthday. Such a sad day.
I was 40 years old and came out of the drugstore crying because it was announced over the radio inside. Before that I had a series of dreams of a shuttle blowing up and what caused it. The cause in my dreams was a solid rocket booster but didn't give any specifics about faulty O'rings. I found out about those later at the time of the explosion and they wouldn't have been faulty if NASA followed the guidelines for the outside operating temperature range of the O'rings. Just another one of NASA's screw ups which finally ended the shuttle program with Columbia. In fact this is still very fresh on my mind.
One night when I was going to work and listening to the radio something really strange came on over the music. The word's rang out "Go with throttle up" and then I started hearing the music again. This happened not too long after the Challenger explosion.
The Challenger explosion as well as the loss of Columbia will be forever etched in my mind. I also had a series of dreams about Columbia even naming that shuttle in my dreams. I made some predictions on line as well. I contacted NASA about my dreams and no one wanted to listen to me except this one lady and apparently she was cut off because she was the only one that was listening to me.
There is also another dream I had where one of the astronauts survived this somehow where NASA gave him a new name an location keeping everything a secret. Things seem to be pointing to Ronald McNair. After all he would of had the best chance of survival being near the hatch on Middeck during launch. I think all of the astronauts had access to portable oxygen supplies as well, but will have to check again.
Yes I have dream diaries with these dreams that are dated, I have documentation of these dreams coming to pass. But it is the Ronald McNair dream that is still up in the air and maybe one day that will surface too.
I always felt like there was a reason that I had these dreams and tried to reach out to NASA who ignored me.
This is one of the best videos I have seen about the Challenger accident. Thank you so much.
Fascinating! God bless you, that has to be difficult for you.
You reached out to NASA because you had some dreams? And you are surprised they ignored you? Sound like classic "delusions of grandeur". Get help.
On that day back to home from school and l've watched on tv live.
Rest in peace all 🙏🙏🙏😪😪😪
6:50: That's not clear since emergency devices have been found activated. We will never know but it's highly probable that they remained conscious much more than we would wisk. Very chilling news and very sad.
7:45: It's not "NASA's International Space Station". It's international which means, by definition, that there are other countries involved, let's say EuropeanSA and Russia to make it short. So it should have been said "NASA's part" in the construction of the ISS. Not everything is American ...
9:05: "They are heroes": it's probably cultural but this kind of statement always surprises me, to say the least. In my culture (and my language) they are victims, not heroes. Heroe is related to great bravery at war or rescuing people at the risk of your life in extreme conditions, things like that. It's very exceptional. I have the greatest respect for the Challenger crew but they were seated in the vehicle, everything was routine, as usual, and suddenly ... it exploded! Where is the heroism? The problem is that, using the word heroe at every opportunity makes it very difficult to distinguish a real heroe from a victim ... Somehow that's not fair because if everybody is a heroe, there are no more heroes.
My view. Regards
Agree, they'd be heroes had they known in advance that their mission was not safe , take very high riskier than other missions and they still devoting to do.
Also I don't think they didn't wear pressure suit during flight. In Russia cosmonauts wear full pressure suit both up and down orbit flight.
Good points. As regards the space station, during the 1980s the concept of an ISS had not yet been developed, so the station the shuttle was intended to serve would indeed have been NASA's alone. It was going to be called Alpha until Ronald Reagan approved the name Freedom as a cordial response to that of the USSR's project, launched in the year of the Challenger disaster.
No-one dislikes the term "hero" more than the astronauts themselves, but they would probably settle for pioneer. Still, it's hard to argue that the first astronauts were not heroes, trusting their lives to rockets with highly unstable safety records as unmanned launch vehicles, and that being so, their Soviet counterparts deserve the same accolade.
@@Sootaroot Yes, agreed. I have no problem with a NASA space station alone but it cannot be the "NASA ISS" as stated: it's contradictory, just a matter of vocabulary. Same applies to "hero": in my mind this designation has to be exceptional: heroism is related to circumstances. You are not a hero because you have been killed, you are a hero because you have been killed when doing something outstanding.
Regarding the first astronauts I agree with you: it was indeed a different story at the time and in fact Gagarine was promoted "Hero of the Soviet Union", which was deserved.
@@alexlo7708 ö
At the time I was just a little kid in Portugal and remember vividly seeing this on the news. This event has always been ingrained in my mind.
Was interesting to read some of the comments here.
clickbait thumbnail.
Err, choice of music when giving facts about the deaths of the astronauts? Terrible video, disliked.
I was watching the launch in my 4th grade class.i was in tears when I saw the episode
Today is the anniversary ,of the space challenger disaster ,so long ago,to all crew you will never be forgotten R.I.P .
I stood outside my apt,in Ft Lauderdale,and sadly saw it happen.Ran back inside to see what was happening.Very sad day.I still miss the Shuttles tho.I have seen ,not on TV,quite a few Shuttle launches,the best being at night.
I still can’t believe I witnessed this horrible accident when it happened:-(
I was sitting in Jensen Beach Florida on a.resturant patio watching the explosion as it happened, This was a Horrible accident that could of been Avoided, the engineers who designed the O-rings said they would probably fail because of the freezing temperatures and nobody believed them henceforth the disaster occurred as a result of suden mechanical failure, Rip Eternal peace Brave crew members your sacrifices will never be forgotten ♦️♦️♦️‼️
Increíble historia 👍👍👍
I saw this with my classmates in grade school. Bless their souls.
I remembered very well, i was celebrating my 17 birthday that day and watching the launch on TV may the crew R.I.P.
I am 52 years old and still remember this when we were in our class room at school watching this live.
I remember when it happened we were all in shock but just thinking of the trauma the school kids must have felt while watching it live on TV is the worst part n
It was crazy that my grandma was watching it because she was a teacher and she watched the whole thing. The school went silent when it exploded and the three pieces.
Biggest misconception was they died instantly in the explosion which they didn’t. The cabin was ejected and most if not all of them were still alive all the way down to the ocean for those 3 plus minutes. Worst possible way to die almost
I remember being the first to find out at my office in Stamford Connecticut and General Reinsurance and having to inform everyone else.
I was in seventh grade science class that was a special two-hour-long class so we could watch the space shuttle launch I'll never forget
One important item wasn't mentioned but one of the engineers warned weeks earlier that one of the O-rings was defective and if used, the spacecraft would at some point explode. I don't remember his name but there was a fair warning yet, the spacecraft was still launched. I felt bad about it. Money talks!
The text on screen is not on screen for long enough time to read it. I have to stop the video mid-stream to read it all.
I was 5 years old watching this on tv at my grandparents house, still remember it
I remember this as one of my earliest memories on a 19 inch knob tv....I was 4 or 5 not quite understanding what happened or why my parents were upset.