RIP Challenger STS-51L 30 Years on ...

[Kunama]

Spare a thought tomorrow for the crew of STS-51L "Challenger". 30 years has gone by since they died when the spacecraft exploded 73 seconds into the flight, I still remember the images as if it was yesterday...

Rest in Peace Michael J Smith, Dick Scobee, Judy Resnik, Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Christa McAuliffe, Gregory Jarvis

[MortonH]

30 years - wow. Still pretty fresh in my mind too.

[deanm]

I remember leaning against the bar in the local country pub with a pint and being dumbfounded by what was being revealed on TV...

A tragedy indeed.

Dean

[Nico13]

Some things you just don't forget.

[Kunama]

So very true, I was having lunch at the Deep Space Tracking Centre and checking the current tracking schedules on the weekend and saw Judy Resnik's uniform on display and instantly recalled the events of January 1986.

A very sad event indeed.

[barx1963]

I can remember getting up that morning, turning on the TV and seeing vision of the shuttle taking off, and thought, "that's odd, they usually don't bother showing launches these days" then thinking "I hope nothing has gone wrong" and then the explosion. The shock is still quite real.

Malcolm

[tonytrout]

I was home from school for a teacher workday. Once I saw a slight flame from underneath the SRB and EFT, I somehow knew they were headed for trouble.

I still blame the higher-ups at NASA for being so trigger-happy in getting launches off that it seemed, at the time, they didn't care for the crew that they were putting into orbit. :(