DarthBrooks: dittybopper: /Actually, I was at Ft. Devens learning how to be a lean, mean, Morse code copyin' machine.

Strange - I was reading this just now and talking to my SO on the phone -- and she's working for the Army at Devens (they lost the "Ft." part a while back) right now.

/It's a world of wonder a world of tears...

This might mean a bit more then. I was standing in formation where the big red 'X' is, right in front of our barracks:



We had a minute of silence for them, especially since some of the crew was military or ex-military.

/Just in case Fark eats the image: http://i52.tinypic.com/5koqow.jpg

I had just turned 8 years old on the 21st. We were out of school for some reason, maybe the cold or some ice, as any bit of winter weather shuts down everything here. I remember watching The Price is Right and the launch came on. My brother, sister and I were glued to the TV because the first teacher was going into space. I just remember feeling sick to my stomach when I saw the explosion. We sat in shock for a very long time and I was the first to break down.
To this day I watch every shuttle launch and landing and I get knots in my stomach when the controller says "Go with throttle up". I don't relax until the shuttle has been up for over 3 minutes.


"We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and 'slipped the surly bonds of Earth' to touch the face of God"-Ronald Reagan, addressing the country just after the disaster

"Sometimes when we reach for the stars, we fall short. But, we must pick ourselves up again and press on despite the pain."-Ronald Reagan, three days later at a memorial at Johnson Space Center

I was working the front desk at a hotel for $5 an hour. Everyone was in a class trying to learn the new computer system. The manager, who couldn't be disturbed, was in class. He came out and said "The Challenger just exploded." and went back to class.

It was a Unix system. They stuck the box in a room with an air conditioner that ran 24/7. In the middle of winter, the ac froze over and burned up. My password was BFD. I don't think the password field was larger than 5 letters.

I was a bun in my mum's oven, not set to come out for another week-ish.

Bring on the youngin' jokes.

In the womb, but only about 2 weeks away from leaving said womb. Must have been a particularly bad day for my mom.

I was in my elementary school auditorium. They had wheeled out a TV and we were all going to take a little break from class to watch the shuttle launch.

jeaux65: I was a bun in my mum's oven, not set to come out for another week-ish.

Bring on the youngin' jokes.

FreakinB: In the womb, but only about 2 weeks away from leaving said womb. Must have been a particularly bad day for my mom.

Can we discuss the fact that we simulposted and said almost the same thing?

Sir Arthur Streeb-Greebling: I just stood there, staring at the screen with a hot soldering iron in one hand and a DB-25 connector in the other.

If I had a dime for every time that's happened to me, I'd have like, $2.80.

/Went to the crimp on connectors to save time and my fingers.

Prank Call of Cthulhu: I had just finished pouring my the last of my life's savings into a brand new advertising campaign for my restaurant. I was watching TV while I opened a big box that had been delivered that contained the banner and posters for the launch of my new Southwest Spicy Onion Rings. The marketing firm I'd hired suggested that was too long a name and I needed something catchier. The shuttle blew up right as I'd unfurled the "Try our new Fiery O-Rings! They're Explosively Delicious!" banner and was thinking to myself that things were really about to turn around for me.

So how did that work out for you?

Seventh grade. There was one class that was going to be watching the launch, but it wasn't mine. I was walking through the hallway to go to the bathroom or something, and an 8th grader came out and told me the shuttle had blown up. I figured he was pulling my leg, went and pissed, and by the time I got back everyone was talking about it.

I had had my wisdom teeth out the day before.

I was home from work, bleeding from the mouth and high on oxycontin, building a model of the space shuttle and watching the launch on TV. I was in Merrimack, NH.

Really.

/CSB

concotelli: Sixth grade classroom, watching it happen live.

A decade later, I did a documentary on it for a college project. I got in touch with NASA and it turns out, all their footage is accessible to the public. They sent me a BOX of training footage, interviews, and their complete investigation into what happened. I had never seen that stuff before.

Amazing.

It has to be available to the public, unless of course it's classified, because the public paid for it. They might, though, hold back images of human remains, but pretty much anything else would be fair game.

concotelli: A decade later, I did a documentary on it for a college project. I got in touch with NASA and it turns out, all their footage is accessible to the public. They sent me a BOX of training footage, interviews, and their complete investigation into what happened. I had never seen that stuff before.

When I was six, I wrote NASA asking if I could borrow one of their old rocket engines to start my own space program. I knew that engines were really the hardest part of the whole thing, and figured that if I could just get one used, I'd be well on my way to space.

I received a large envelope containing all sorts of information on the space program- rocket details and photographs; it was a really fantastic little package for a 6 year old to get. I have the packet today, and there's one bit that I really treasure- on the pamphlet describing the Delta rocket, someone had attached a post-it with the hand-written message, "Build yours like a Delta!"