Godspeed Challenger

[wiliqueen]

(crossposted from my pro blog)

Thirty years ago today, about ten minutes into chemistry class, the phone rang.

Before that moment, I don't think any of us had really noticed that there was a phone in the science room. We all stared, bewildered, as our teacher walked over, picked it up, listened silently for a moment, and put it back down. Then,

Comments

[amilyn]

This is gorgeous.

[wiliqueen]

Thank you. :-)

[diannelamerc]

Wow. So well written

[wiliqueen]

Oh, man, that would have driven me SO insane. I don't blame you a bit.

I was done after an hour, probably not even that. And yeah, it was pretty much all we talked about all day -- I think maybe they let school out early, but I can't remember for sure -- but at least we stopped watching it.

I didn't want to see any more of it until we started to get a "why" (which took at least a few days, even for hypotheticals -- IIRC, it was months before we even started to hear about the O-ring issue -- but I kept looking back at it over the next few days, hoping we'd find out something new.

[diannelamerc]

Oh good. It occurred to me only after I was AFK for most of the day that this could have come off as threadcrapping, and I didn't mean it to.

Yeah, I lasted several hours out of sheer boredom and hope they would finish up, and had no one to discuss it with. And I felt like such a heartless bitch for so long because I didn't feel devastated or traumatized (like the TV kept telling me everyone was) and then went further and ended up angry and resenting it because of the 'enforced' coverage I experienced. Such very different experiences of the same thing at basically the same age.

And I thought the O-ring thing came up within a few days, but it was a long time before they established that it was a solid contender, much less confirmed that it was indeed the fail point. (Then again, I was so pointedly Sick And Tired Of The Damned Thing And Over It Already before the end of the same day, so I wasn't paying attention to continuing coverage nearly the way you were.)

[wiliqueen]

And I thought the O-ring thing came up within a few days

It could very well have, and me be remembering completely wrong.

But no, not threadcrapping at all. It was very clear that you were putting pieces together, and I'm glad mine were useful. :-)

[neadods]

They are immortal, but they should be home.

That's beautiful and perfect.

[wiliqueen]

Thank you. <3

[lyssie]

It's funny, I know I've talked about it before--we were living in Mims at the time of the Challenger accident. I saw it live, standing on our front lawn, and it still shocks me when I remember it. Because that sort of thing just wasn't supposed to happen. At all

[wiliqueen]

I had forgotten, but I remember you telling me that now. That just... wow.

I'll look forward to reading your post. :-)

[maiac]

A couple of months ago, I saw an IMAX movie about the space program. It was mostly about developing a mission to Mars, but it included some history.

Yes, it included the Challenger launch. And when I watched that plume go awry, I cried. Thirty years, and I still can't think about it without crying.

[wiliqueen]

Hard not to. {{{hugs}}}