30 Years Ago Today, Where Were You?

Today marks the 30th anniversary of the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. On that day, 7 brave astronauts lost their lives in the pursuit of science and education. I was in 4th grade, looking forward to the first live broadcast later that day from Christa McCauliffe, the teacher who was on that flight. She was scheduled to give many live broadcasts to children around the country over the next several days. Instead, the principal of my school announced over the intercom that there had been an accident with the launch. The decision was made to bring us older kids at the school into the library, one class at a time, and show us the recording they had made of the launch. I remember hoping that the astronauts were going to be okay, until I saw the explosion. When I saw that, I knew they were gone.

As President Reagan said at the time,

“The crew of the space shuttle Challenger honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives. We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved good-bye and 'slipped the surly bonds of earth' to 'touch the face of God. ”

Click to expand...