Today marked 25 years

[Schumi]

25 years since we lost the seven brave souls pictured above.

[Tishabet]

Watched it live in my kindergarten... back then the idea of going to space seemed wondrous, now it seems kind of ho-hum.

Godspeed to the Challenger crew.

[motion]

Still tears me up to think about it.... true heros.

[KFC911]

I remember returning from lunch that day and hearing the news. Just like 9/11, seems like it was yesterday. RIP...

[drcoastline]

I remember it vividly. That and Reagan being shot. Watched both live. It's still very sad. I was in high school at the time. To me it was one of the events that marked the begging of Americas down hill slide.

[David]

I was coming back from class at UT Austin, walked into the frat house and the launch was on TV. I thought, cool I'll get to see it and sat down to watch

[peppy]

Agreed Heroes, RIP.

11th grade for me and such a somber day.

[yetibone]

I remember it was a snow day around here, so we were out of school. In fact, we'd gotten on the school bus as the snow had started that morning, and ended up halfway there (about 45 min. into an hour and a half bus ride on a good day), then was told by a parent at one of the stops that school was canceled for the day.

I was 11 years old, and was sledding with some friends when it happened. I didn't find out until later that afternoon.

[stealthn]

Interesting, I saw a documentary on it last night, learned alot;

Morton Thyacol (sp?) warned NASA the day before the launch not to go at temps below a certain number 53 degrees I think, NASA freaked basically overrode them, launched.

The Engineer from MT quit and had a nervous breakdown, the NASA dude that overrode MT got promoted.

[IROC]

I was in my ME 301 Measurements class when the professor walked in and told us the news. Inadvertently, I ended up with a job in the aerospace industry as a result of the Challenger accident. NASA went into a "stand down" posture immediately after the accident and then started ramping up in the late '80s. I was hired during the "ramp up" and ended up working on the first Spacelab launch after Challenger (Astro-1 in 1990).