Where were you 33 years ago today?

[jlspence99]

I was working as a mechanical engineer for the Tennessee Valley Authority in Chattanooga, TN and saw it on TV there in the lobby. One positive that came out of this tragedy was that I was able to transfer into NASA as a result. I spent 32 years there. Yes, it is a fact that NASA management pressured Morton Thiokol management to launch. Had Christa not been on that flight I'm sure it would have scrubbed; however, the media attention and political pressure made the Agency do something stupid.

Also was there when we lost Columbia. Classic case of 1) assuming just because something hasn't yet happened, that it will never happen and 2) using analytical models to show reinforced carbon-carbon (RCC) good for PAL ramp impact damage but not realizing or understanding that those models weren't applicable to the performance of RCC on the wing leading edges.

[howson]

I was working as a mechanical engineer for the Tennessee Valley Authority in Chattanooga, TN and saw it on TV there in the lobby. One positive that came out of this tragedy was that I was able to transfer into NASA as a result. I spent 32 years there. Yes, it is a fact that NASA management pressured Morton Thiokol management to launch. Had Christa not been on that flight I'm sure it would have scrubbed; however, the media attention and political pressure made the Agency do something stupid.

Also was there when we lost Columbia. Classic case of 1) assuming just because something hasn't yet happened, that it will never happen and 2) using analytical models to show reinforced carbon-carbon (RCC) good for PAL ramp impact damage but not realizing or understanding that those models weren't applicable to the performance of RCC on the wing leading edges.

The video where a piece of foam was shot at a leading edge (and penetrating it) is forever burned into my memory. I have used it many times as an example when I'm emphatically told that "x can't cause y" but the cause of a malfunction or incident is still unknown.

I am insanely jealous that you got to work there for 32 years. An unfulfilled dream (fantasy?) of mine. I don't know if you read my earlier post, but my childhood was spent watching the Apollo program (up close, as my step-father had access due to his Air Force job at Patrick AFB).

[jim1521]

Was stationed in southern Italy. Just got home from the office and AFRTS had cut live to the feed. No audio to it, just the video feed. It quickly became apparent what had happened. Completely stunned. How could this have happened? It was IMPOSSIBLE! We never lost a man in space - let alone 7! This was our first time bloodied (yes, I know Grissom, White and Chafee, but they didn't die "in space"). We learned a lot from the "Apollo 1" mission, but even more with this shuttle loss. We learned we were human - and it hurt. We learned to appreciate Chuck Yeager, John Glenn, Scott Carpenter, Bruce McCandless and all the other guys that strapped it on and had The Right Stuff.

[jlspence99]

snip

I am insanely jealous that you got to work there for 32 years. An unfulfilled dream (fantasy?) of mine. I don't know if you read my earlier post, but my childhood was spent watching the Apollo program (up close, as my step-father had access due to his Air Force job at Patrick AFB).

Like many things, it was awesome sometimes and extremely frustrating other times. I've had the privilege of working with some of the smartest, most capable people in the country, if not the world...people that have made history. However, NASA is a government agency; therefore, it has its paper pushers and political appointees. After we lost Columbia, our then Administrator at the time, Sean O'Keefe - a career government bureaucrat - decided he was going to scrap the upcoming Hubble Telescope repair mission because he didn't feel keeping the telescope maintained and upgraded was worth the risk to astronaut lives. I actually got into a running email "debate" with him - reminding him that Hubble was generating spectacular images and that the American public was captivated by what it was producing and scientists were using it to learn more about our universe than ever before possible with ground-based assets. If that wasn't worth taking risk for, what was? Thank goodness that got turned around. It was also frustrating to me that we mothballed the Shuttle in 2011...and then spent hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars buying rides from the Russians to the ISS. We could have safely flown Shuttle until we had a replacement ready. Anyway, that's water under the bridge. Hopefully, the new heavy-lift Space Launch System rocket will be ready for launch in 2020/2021 and we'll go back to the moon and then onto Mars.

[Misfit]

At MEPS station Jacksonville FL enlisting in the military. I was 16 and going into delay entry. Dang where has time, my hair and my muscular physique gone?

[Airrace]

Was watching the news of the launch as I got ready for work

[Skirugger]

Was in 4th grade, Mrs. Godamiller’s class, Charleston SC. They wheeled the old tube tv-on-a-cart in, and we watched live. When the shuttle exploded, none of us kids knew what had happened, until we saw the teacher sobbing in the corner. It’s one of my clearest childhood memories.