Its been 35 years, where were you?

The Challenger disintegrated during launch 35 years ago today.

Watching it live on TV at a 5th grader at Rolling Ridge Elementary School in Harborcreek, PA. 

I just remember the stunned silence from the teachers as they didn't know how to process what they saw. 

I was in school. Watching the launch on TV. It was kind of shocking. 

Kindergarten. Hadn't quite gone to school yet. Saw it on the daycare ladies tv. 

Watching it at in class at my elementary school. They just turned off the TV and said something had gone wrong, then got us back to work the best they could. Those teachers did a great job putting on a strong face in light of what happened. My parents explained it to me when I got home.

Still a little anxious watching any space launch.

High school. Just got back to my BASIC programming class from lunch when the teacher told us what had happened.

Home from school. I think it was a "teacher day" or something. I remember my friend Kenny calling me and telling me turn on the TV. I think I was playing on the computer at the time. (This was pre-internet.)

I was under a stretched 15 passenger E-350 Econoline rebuilding the front suspension.  The radio station that was on in the shop interrupted their regular programming to cover the story.

I was in college at the time and watched in a room with a bunch of other people.  My dad had pieces flying on the shuttle and had to go identify pieces that were left.  His first was response was he was not suprised as they had been continually removing safety gear to add more payload.  I believe the first shuttle flights had a parachuted escape system if I am not mistaken.  

In Juneau, Alaska getting ready to open the doors for business.

I was waiting in line to take my drivers license test as it was my 16th birthday.

Strange but my memory says I was in elementary school but actually I would have been in the 8th grade.

In 4th grade, watching it live on TV (Christa M was an Indiana teacher). 

I was standing outside my employers building on the edge of highway A1A in Satellite Beach, FL, watching in real time, freezing my butt off.  Saw the whole thing and the shockwave from the explosion nearly knocked me off my feet.  I had just started a new job after graduating from University of Central Florida and was staying with a friend in Cocoa Beach.  My only transportation was a motorcycle and it was so cold the evening  before that I pulled into a Avis rental car in Cocoa, parked the bike and rented a car.  There was stuff falling into the ocean for an hour afterwards and debris washed up on the beach for weeks.  Lots of beach-combers out looking for stuff but it was a crime to keep anything.  Needless to say, it was a big, big deal in the area and not something I will ever forget.

In reply to bobzilla :

Thought Christa was from New Hampshire....?

We were at my buddies shop working on a couple kit cars he had designed , 

I  know he had a very small TV at the shop that we watched the coverage ,

Sad day , and the kit car is still in the garage....

I had just started my drive from Ames, IA to head out to my new grad engineering job at Boeing in Renton, WA. 

I should have been in elementary school, but for whatever reason I was at the home of some family members. Like a lot of kids I really wanted to be an astronaut at the time.  It was perhaps the first significant "sobering" experience of my life.

At work, saw the news footage later.

My dad holds a patent for the machine he designed that was used to prevent recurrences of the Apollo 1 cabin fire disaster that killed three astronauts. He was an electro-optical engineer involved in several projects used in the space missions.

7th grade English class.  Shuttle launches weren't considered newsworthy enough to interrupt class to watch them live any more, but someone came into the classroom to announce that "Challenger just blew up!"

I am one of those people that don't particularly remember when / where (I am / was very much into NASA stuff).  I think I heard it on the radio when I got up.  I suspect it has to do with being on the west coast and it being a lot earlier than for other people (e.g. I would not have been in school). 

I do remember Regan though.  I was in German class in high school.  I seem to remember some cheers or clapping (don't know if that actually happened) which of course is wildly inappropriate.

Probably in my crib. I was 7 months old. 

stukndapast said:

In reply to bobzilla :

Thought Christa was from New Hampshire....?

I guess you're right.... I have no idea why we were watching it then...

School lunch room in Garner, NC.  They wheeled in TVs so we could watch the launch.  Lots of  "whoa"s and gasps but I don't remember much else.

Over three years from being born.