All the elementary schools in America were watching as they had a non-astronaut teacher on board.

I was at Arlington National Cemetary in Washington, walking just behind a tour bus of Russian tourists. We came to the Challenger Memorial and the tour guide spoke to them in their native tongue. Several of them openly cried and rubbed their eyes; Russia being a space-firing nation too with many loses in their history. It was so touching that our two countries bonded around a common agony in that moment. I will never forget it.

No, it was EVERY classroom in the country!Yeah we were hyped up about this teacher going to space for months and months. We watched her go through Space Training and taken along for her experience. We were all rounded up into classrooms that day by grade to watch this happen in real time. The teachers didn’t know what to do. No one knew what to do. I remember them just turning it off and everyone being scurried back to classrooms and our desks and teachers pretending we all didn’t watch that. Back then there was not counseling given to students that experienced trauma either. Emotions were ignored. Every child of the 80’s remembers watching this happen while at school. We all have trauma over it.

Everyone my age, will always get a shiver with "Challenger! Go with throttle up" We ALL lived this.

I was a sophomore in high school when Challenger exploded, and every classroom had a TV, and we were all watching when it happened. It's was horribly emotional, everyone was crying, and when our principal made the announcement over the intercom, he could not even speak at one point. That was 32 years ago, and I still remember it so vividly. To find out afterward that NASA knew of the inherent risk, did not inform the crew, and played Russian Roulette with these peoples lives, was positively sickening

The older couple you see @ 14.13 are Christa McAuliffe's parents who watched the launch live. It wasn't just McAuliffe's students who watched the launch live on TV. Many of the nation's middle schoolers were watching live as part of a national teacher in space program.

Schools across the country was watching this. Not just her students. 😔

I was 9yrs old our classroom teacher wheeled in the tv so we could watch the launch live. We were all excited and then we received the shock of our young lives.

Every elementary school kid in the country was watching this. I will never forget it. I was 11.

This moment was a defining moment for American GenX. Everyone I know watched it unfold on a TV on a cart in school. I was in the 7th grade. It was a big deal because a teacher was going up in space. So the teachers and students were all excited about it. We (my school) weren't offered any kind of grief counseling either.

I remember sitting in the elementary school library watching this live on multiple screens. When the shuttle exploded, everyone, even the teachers, were like, "Oh God! Did that just happen?!" Then the teachers turned off the TV's and sent us home for the day. I was only 6 years old at the time, and I still remember watching this disaster to this day. 😢

The temperature at Cape Canaveral hit 65 degrees Fahrenheit the very next day.

I was on ARMY battalion late duty, mopping floors, and we had a tiny TV which showed it all live. I had to go knock on the Bird Colonel door and tell him "Sir the Shuttle exploded" we went to lock down for 5 days until we all found out it was just an engineering problem.

EVERY single school in America was watching the Challenger launch. I was in Junior High, Seventh Grade, watching rhis in math class. The FIRST (and Last) launch involving a school teacher, and every school in America (nearly) wanted to show their support. I'll never forget it. Schools released early that day.

You should DEFINITELY react to Apollo 13. One of the most inspirational and amazing stories in space travel

My grandmother worked at NASA. I was there watching from her office window. Definitely a day to remember whether you want to or not. Such a gut wrenching event. I'll never forget the video of Christa's parents watching it blow up and slowly comprehending what they just saw.

The selection process alone for the "First Teacher in Space" was such a big deal that the entire country was wrapped up in it. This was one of the biggest NASA launches ever, it made space travel exciting again. The entire country was watching and every school. Her parents were there and seen in your video. They, like a lot of people, could not wrap their heads around what they had witnessed at first. It is one of those days that you will always remember.

I was watching this live in the 4th grade. The absolute silence in the library was deafening. It was the only place we could all gather to watch together. A teacher finally shut off the screen and we all learned about death that day.

I lived within 10 miles of Kennedy Space Center and had watched every shuttle launch from my front yard. I was on my lunch break and in the drive through line at a fast food place on the island when all the traffic stopped and everyone got out of their cars (normal occurrence). When the explosion happened you could hear screaming everywhere. The astronauts families were sitting front seat watching and being interviewed by every news channel. It was horrific. KSC employed the majority of people in my community, so not only the horrible loss of life affected us, we immediately lost about 80% of the jobs in our area. It was truly awful…😢💔

Regular television was interrupted for the launch of the Challenger. It was the first time regular citizens were on board a space shuttle mission and one of them was a teacher. I was at work having lunch. We just sat in the employee lounge staring at the TV. I went back to my desk and told my co-workers what happened and they thought I was lying and got mad at me for playing such a cruel joke. I sent them to the lounge and they famed back as stunned as I was. It was one of those events that you never forget where you were and what was going on around you when you found out about this. Worse, because there was a teacher on board, schools all over the country were watching the shuttle blow up live. Especially elementary schools were celebrating a teacher going into space. It was a horrible day.

Going back to 1967, NASA has always had go fever. The Apollo 1 launch pad fire which killed Grissom, White, and Chaffee. I was 24 when this happened, the rush to put a teacher in space, launching a frigid day played a big part. Crystal McAuliffe's parents saw their daughter die.

I was in college and we were watching it live. The cause was the temperature. It was cold enough that the gaskets on the boosters became brittle. The worst part is that the engineers at NASA knew the risks (they had NEVER had a successful test firing at anywhere near this temperature) and had tried to call off the launch, but their communication was so “technical” and convoluted that no one up the chain grasped what they were saying. Edward Tufte has written about this in his books on data analysis.

Most of the schools in the country were showing the launch live to students. Not every classroom but many of them. It happened in front of our eyes during my senior year of high school.

I was a senior in high school, and we watched it live in class. Many, many students watched it, far younger than me. It was terrifying and so sad.

The flight took place January 28, 1986. In Florida, it would have been in the 50s probably a week or two later.

A lot of us GenXer's saw it live in school. This is the reason why any disasters with space missions touch me and make me cry. Heck, I'm almost 52 now and I still get teary & cry when I watch the footage.

I was watching in my third grade classroom. No one seemed to realize what happened for a minute, and then our teacher quickly turned it off. All the teachers gathered in the hall to talk, and then we were all sent outside for recess. We had spent weeks studying about this in science, had posters and projects all over the classroom. It was so traumatic, something I have never forgotten.

My middle school honors science class got to leave our other classes at that time to watch this with our science teacher, who was one of the finalists not chosen to be on the Challenger. He was bummed out how close he got and that it wasn't him chosen. The look on his face when it exploded, I will never forget, then other teachers were getting him out of the classroom for him to process it away from us.

So many things to say about this. I was a Freshman in high school when the Challenger accident happened. I was a big space shuttle nerd, having been to Space Camp not long prior. When the teacher in space program was announced in 1985, my Mom quipped "Watch, that will be the one that blows up". Sadly, she was right. About ten years ago, I got to know a guy who worked at Morton Thiokol, the company that built the solid rocket boosters. He got to know Roger Boisjoly quite well at his time there and told me once that Roger had never gotten over the Challenger accident and had felt guilt over his inability to stop the launch. Regarding Columbia, I have never understood why Linda Ham had blocked all requests to investigate the foam strike. She was married to Astronaut Ken Ham and knew all of the astronauts on board, and their families.

I was watching in my 2nd grade science class. Years later, I went to school, with Christas Son. All over, a tragedy. She's got a beautiful headstone, in blossom hill cemetery, Concord, new Hampshire. People leave presents there, to this day.

The main kid from the movie “a Christmas story” (Ralphie) was the “NASA children’s outreach ambassador”, who went around to schools and promoted this mission. Most American schools showed it live, and “Ralphie” (Peter) was standing next to the teacher’s parents during the launch.

I remember seeing this live in school. The absolute shock is something I've remembered over 38yrs later. My family is from Houston and we went to the Rendez-vous Houston laser light show by Jean Michel Jarre. It was a huge outdoor concert and celebrated 150yrs of Houston, 25 years of NASA and was in honor of the Space shuttle Challenger astronauts.

I remember watching this live in my 7th grade classroom. I'll never forget that. I don't think any kid that watched it will forget.

I remember seeing this on television, and the Columbia disintegrate as it re-entered the atmosphere. I'm also old enough to remember Apollo 1 burn up on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral in January 1967. In fact, at the time, my father was stationed at the Pentagon, and two of the astronauts, Gus Grissom and Roger Chaffee, were buried at Arlington National Cemetery. The third Edward White was buried at West Point. The funerals for Grissom was in the morning and White in the afternoon. Everyone at the Pentagon was required to attend, half in the morning and half in the afternoon. I went with my father to Ed White's funeral in the afternoon.

I remember watching it. I was with a friend who worked for NASA. She was worried about the tiles. When it blew up, she said, "The tiles blew. They don't listen. They died for NASA ego."

I was in grade school when the Challlenger blew up. In school, we watched it on TV here in the US. It was shocking & something I will never forget. They immediately sent us home. 😢 RIP to the Challlenger crew.

I was 11 y/o watching a TV on a cart that they pulled into the classroom. The phrase, "Challenger. Go with throttle up." is seared into my brain.

Retro Report is so good with covering older major news stories, probably the best series the NYT has done.

I lived in the Melbourne area of Florida as a child. I could see shuttles launch all the time growing up. I was 7 years old and we went outside for recess to watch it live in the sky. It blew up for us all to see. I don't remember much from when I was 7 but I remember every second of that day.

I was in 3rd grade we were all packed in the hallway watching the launch live and saw it blow up. We could tell that something very bad happened by the way our teachers reacted. We didn't really grasp what that was. I'll never forget that. 😢

I was invited as a VIP to the launch of Columbia one month before the Challenger disaster in appreciation of the computer support work I had done for the Shuttle program. My family was allowed to watch the pre-dawn launch south-east of the launch pad. Night became Day, then the Roar and the ground started shaking. Columbia lifted off and flew almost overhead. We could see Columbia with the naked eye as she crossed into daylight and watched the boosters seperate. My 3 kids were devastated weeks later when the disaster occurred. No one has been allowed to watch the launches at the location we were at since the disaster due to safety concerns.

Astronaut Judith Resnick was a source of local pride here in Akron, Ohio. She was the second woman to fly in space. So everyone was glued to televisions--all the schools, even the local university. I was in the English Department when one of my professors pulled me into her office in which she had a small portable television. She was in shock. She had known "Judy" all her life; she was friends with the family and had attended the same synagogue. So, so sad. And to go in seconds from the extremes of excitement and pride and hopefulness to trauma and devastation.

You should check our the COLUMBIA disaster next

The ISS did not exist in 1986, not launched till 2001. Challenger's mission was planned as the first Teacher in Space Project flight in addition to observing Halley's Comet for six days and performing a routine satellite deployment. I was the manager of a store in the Crossroads Mall in Boulder, Colorado the day Challenger exploded. The mall was normally bustling with sound and activity. You could hear a pin drop on this day. An electronics store with a display window full of televisions was showing the news footage over and over and over of the explosion. People were crowded around, unable to look away from the horrible sight, I believe we were collectively in mild shock. I will never forget that day.

We were all watching it live in elementary school

I was a military satellite tech, and we did all the backup comms for the space shuttle missions. Watched it live, like we always did, and we were so shocked that for what seemed a long time, no one said a word. We just sort of looked at each other. But when the telemetry and comms went dead, it hit home for real.

Even after all these years that footage breaks my heart. Takes me back to crying watching it live on TV in my high-schools library!

2:49-so everyone was so excited about this flight that our teachers had TVs on the the classroom so we could watch the launch together. It was shocking. I still remember the blast of disbelief, and then the grief

I’m from Texas and lived 45 minutes from the point where Columbia blew up. Most of the debris landed in the next county over from us. We heard it. It was so loud it woke us up and it lasted so long. It rattled the windows and doors and we had no clue what was happening. It wasn’t until later that we learned it was the shuttle exploding. I’ll never forget it.

I grew up in Central Florida, and we could easily stand outside and see shuttle launches from the Cape. I remember a freezing cold January day, we went to the "quad" part of my high school to watch because of the teacher going up. We knew right away there was something wrong. The clouds don't look like that behind the shuttle. We'd seen dozens of them. Next thing the teachers were shooing us into classrooms so we couldn't see it anymore. They knew, we knew. It was absolutely horrible. I give credit to Reagan for his speech that night. "Breaking the surly bonds of Earth" made me cry when he said it. (He was quoting a poem by John Gillespie Magee, Jr.) I had a Florida Challenger license plate all through high school, because that was an option. A tragedy that really stuck with me - still does.

Thank you for reacting to this video. I have a friend who was a mid-level engineer at NASA at the time of the Challenger. He had nothing to do with the decision to launch but he went through hell after the disaster.

I was in elementary school when the Challenger disaster happened. They had the TV on, nearby, in the common area, so that we could watch the shuttle take off while continuing with class. This launch was a big deal because a school teacher was going up this time. When it blew up, I whispered to the boy next to me "something is wrong. I think it blew up." He said "you don't know what you are talking about. That's just the boosters coming off." They soon called us all over to the common area and told us what happened. I remember another little girl uncontrollably crying. It was such a sad day. I remember several months later, they had an astronaut visit our school to answer questions and promote NASA and space travel. Many years later Space Shuttle Columbia broke up during re-entry. That was horrible as well. You should watch a full documentary about that disaster too, if you haven't already.

I was at work, a Chevrolet car dealership, and had walked over to the office and showroom. I stopped to watch the tv in the customer's lounge, which was turned to the Challenger launch. I saw both the launch and the explosion. Very shocking, especially to a then young man who had grown up with the U.S. space program from Project Gemini to Project Apollo to present day.

Every classroom in Canada was watching this live as well. I remember it clearly

1) I was in 10th grade (ages 15-16) when this happened. I was home sick that day. I don't know whether I might have seen it live in school, because we had mid-year exams that week. As a lifelong spaceflight nerd, I have vivid memories of that day and the aftermath. 2) NASA's budget is smaller ($25 billion, less than 0.5% of all federal spending) than many people think, but going to the Moon is very expensive. It was not possible for the Apollo astronauts to spend more than a few days on the Moon. Even the plan to return, the Artemis program, will allow for only short-duration visits. Each Artemis mission will cost more than $4 billion, and that does not include more than $40 billion in development costs! Only by achieving full reusability of rockets, which SpaceX hopes to do with Starship SuperHeavy, will the costs come down enough to make long-term duration missions affordable. 3) Actually, SpaceX had 96 launches last year and is on pace to match or exceed that total in 2024. 4) At 14:13, that's the parents and I think the sister of the teacher Christa McAuliffe.

Kabir, it was not just Christa's class that was anxiously watching, it was classrooms all across the USA and all us regular adults! I remember watching this happen and my gut sank. Many years later, I was at our local airport watching our semi-annual air show when I watched a man plummet his home made rocket straight into the ground, he died in a huge orange and black fireball. The emotions were the same for me on both occasions. It is terrible that the only time things change for the better is after the tragedy and loss of life happens. We should never get to that point!

I was 8 years old when this happened. It was a big deal because a civilian teacher was onboard. I remember our teacher rolled the tv into the classroom and turned it on. It was so exciting to watch and then, in an instant, it was gone. That is something like 9/11, you’ll never forget where you were on that day.

They did add a third after the Challenger accident. Also, it's a common misconception, but Challenger did not explode. It broke up. The crew cabin separated from the payload bay after the tank broke up due to aerodynamic forces. The crew was most likely alive but unconscious for the 2 and half minute fall back to the ocean. It broke up around 40,000 feet. The cabin continued upward to around 63,000 feet before it came back down.

NASA's original estimate for the Shuttle program was a 1% failure rate -- 1/100 -- and that was considered to be an acceptable risk because it was so important for the USA to return to space. The final tally was a 1.5% failure rate (2/135). So the "generic" risk was well understood by everybody, including the astronauts. There was more Washington-level political pressure to launch than the video talked about. The final moon mission was in 1972, and the final Saturn/Apollo launch was in '73. America, who had landed on the moon (!!!) had no way to put people in space until the first Shuttle flight in 1981. The US was desperate to return to orbit for Cold War and other political reasons. By 1986 the Soviet Union had a long-term space station in orbit (Mir) and the US didn't, so the Shuttle's single largest goal was to build the International Space Station, which required 36 dedicated Shuttle missions. The Hubble Telescope was carried into orbit by a Shuttle too, there were several classified Shuttle missions for the military, and other goals of US national importance were involved.

A hometown hero here where I’m from and, 2 other brilliant astronauts, were killed . Gus Grissom from Mitchell, Indiana. They have his boyhood home turned museum memorialized. Command Module interior caught fire and burned on January 27, 1967, during a pre-launch test on Launch Pad 34 at Cape Kennedy. Astronauts Grissom, White, and Chaffee, who were working inside the closed Command Module, were asphyxiated.

I was in 6th grade and we were watching this live with the 7th grade class. "go for throttle up" is burned into my memory.

I was in 3rd grade when the Challenger accident happened. Well after it happened, I learned exactly what happened and I was just stunned. One solid rocket booster made it through the O rings and acted like a blowtorch on the external tank. This blowtorch effect cut through the lower attachment points and the one solid rocket booster (SRB) started to move around in the air stream a little bit. Just before the explosion there was a high altitude wind that moved the whole craft’s trajectory. The computer went to compensate and put the shuttle back on course. This caused the loose booster, which had already put a small hole in the external tank, to smack the external tank causing the explosion. They were almost to SRB sep when they drop the boosters and kept going to space. It is believed at least 2 survived the explosion in the cabin because emergency air tanks were activated. Unfortunately because of the two level design of the cabin, there was no ejection seat (early flights had 2 for the commander and pilot only), or way of egress. Your idea, and the eventual solution of a third O ring sounds like an easy fix, however any redesign of a critical system in any spacecraft must go through a long arduous process before it is considered “human flight safe”. The Falcon 9 from SpaceX is human flight certified, while the Falcon Heavy (3 first stages lashed together) is not. Even though it is 3 of the same first stages joined together, it has not been through the required human flight testing. Now during the 2 year pause on the shuttle program, they were testing the three O ring design before returning to launch. Columbia happened while I was flying to Iraq for the build up to the invasion. The pilot of our chartered flight told us while in the air. The details on that disaster is too horrific to think of. Finally, to give you some positive information, SpaceX last year had 96 total launches for the calendar year. Right now they are zeroing in on their 300th successful first stage landing. They are also working on their next test launch of Starship. Starship is by far the world’s largest and most powerful rocket. They have not successfully made it to a true orbit, or recovered any part successfully as designed and hoped for yet. Despite what seems like a failure so far is not. First the general public has much more access to witness what is the testing stage of this rocket. Most of the testing goes without any fanfare or notice, and usually takes place far from the general public. The video on the IFT-3 test is the most recent and shows much improvement over the first two tests. IFT-4 will be happening in the next couple of months if not sooner. Part of Starship’s mission will be to help humanity return to the moon, and even build a base there. Eventually it will be going to Mars and back. Oh, it is also going to be fully reusable.

Every school watched. You do remember such events. 5th grade, our class was just returning from lunch. Before we got seated. Our teacher just went to tears as we were trying to understand what was happening. For Columbia, I was living in East Texas. I just pulled into a parking spot and heard a load pop. I saw a few streaks across the sky. I walked into the store and saw it on the TVs in the store. Realizing that is what I just witnessed over East Texas.

I was at work when a coworker told us after his wife called him with then news. I had a moonlighting job that I went to right after my regular job, so I didn't get to see it on TV until late that night when I finally got home. My second job was in a department store and I recall it being strangly quiet that night. It was shocking. There had not been a death in a NASA spacecraft, IIRC, since Apollo 1 in the 1960s when I was a kid. Everybody got home safely on Apollo 13. THe only mishap, if you can call it that, I can think of off the top of my head was when Skylab fell back to earth.This tragedy reinforced how dangerous space travel can be.

I was about 18-19 years old when the shuttle Columbia exploded on re-entry. I was at a martial arts tournament when an announcer made everyone pause and told us what happened. Everyone was horrified and there was moment of silence. I remember my Dad tearing up; I’m sure he was remembering the Challenger tragedy. We live in Texas, and for days debris was falling from the shuttle.

This is definitely one of those moments when you remember exactly where you are, and exactly what you are doing. Because they were taking a school teacher on that mission, it was a big deal to school children. Plus, we always watched the launches back then anyway, so this was a big deal, and every kid in America saw it happen.

I was working as a police dispatcher. The girl that I was training told me about a minute before the explosion that it would happen (her Dad worked high up in the Government). She told me that "they weren't going to allow a nuke in space". I thought she was nuts.....then it blew up😮. They had hyped Sally Ride as a teacher going in space. Kids every where knew who she was. She was ALL of the kids teacher!!!! My generation (I am in my 70's) went through the Kennedy assassination. This generation had the space shuttle explosion!

I was 11 years old in 5th grade at the time. So many kids in primary schools in the U.S. were watching it because there was a civilian teacher on board. My class wasn’t watching, but I vividly remember that other classrooms were going to watch, and our school’s science teacher went around to each classroom, sobbing, to explain to the teachers what had just happened. Sad day.

My 7th grade science teacher was one of the finalists for the Challenger mission. We all watched this happen on live TV.

This is one of those 'do you remember where you were when the Challenger blew up?' Yes, I remember very clearly watching in total disbelief, not understanding what had happened. Such a tragedy.

I live in North Georgia and that day I can still remember. Our school was canceled that day due to frozen pipes. We may get cold, but to have frozen pipes while still having electricity was very strange. I had a steer that needed his water busted and that was my job. I had to bust his water and make sure he has water and fresh hay in the feeder and the stall had fresh straw. It was very cold and my gloves got wet so my hands were very cold. Thats what i remember about that day. Of course the teacher had blue eyes joke was told at school later. She had blue eyes..one blew this way and one blew that way. When your ten it was funny! Thats why you have to keep in thought that when your building a multimillion dollar project mostly relied on the cheapest builder. You get what you pay for.

I remember seeing the Challenger disaster when I was in school when I was young. Then a friend of mine worked for NASA and we were supposed to see the first launch since the disaster at Kennedy but they scrubbed it at the last moment. This was so deeply disastrous and I'll never forget it. That horrible feeling watching that ship fall apart and then hearing later that they most likely were alive for a period of time after the initial explosion seared it even more. Fly eternal and at peace Challenger crew.

I remember this image in my head as if it was yesterday. I think I was like 10 or 11 years old. I lived in Brevard County, known as “The Space Coast” area. Our area code is “321” for the count down. When I was in school back in the day, the whole school would stop what they were doing, and we all would go outside to watch the shuttle go up every time there was a launch. My grandpa worked for Kennedy Space Center in Port Canaveral. He was a Security Guard. He had a picture of the female astronaut with her signature (we don’t know where that picture is anymore) but when the Challenger blew up, he had that picture framed and in the living room. But yes, what a tragedy. We all knew something had happened, but as kids, I guess didn’t truly comprehend what was going on. I remember my 4th grade teacher tried to be so nonchalant about it. He told us what happened was something new and let’s get back to class. Now that I’m older, I can only imagine the shock he had as an adult knowing all these kids just witnessed all this horrific scene. This is often compared to times of memories that people remember of history, like JFK, 911, etc.

I was in third grade and lived in Florida at the time. We were all on the playground field to watch the launch. We had special lessons for the time leading up to the launch, specifically about space. I didn't understand at first. All the teachers were crying. I thought about it for years as a little kid.

I was in high school when this happened, remember it very well. It was being shown in our classroom and as it became apparent what was happening, a couple of kids in the classroom began laughing. One of the more boisterous people in our H.S. happened to be in our class and she tore into the people laughing at what was happening, she left the room sobbing. The classmates that were laughing quickly shut up and realized that it wasn't a joke. Sad day.

I was in high school and our whole school was watching. I think the majority of public schools in the US were watching.

I was in 6th grade and watching it on one of those TVs they would bring into the classroom on the tall rolling cart. With the old top loading VCR right below it. I remember it all clear as day.

I was standing in my front yard in Florida watching Challenger. It was so COLD in Florida that day.

I remember this because they had pulled all of us together to watch it in school and we were just sitting there stunned when it happened. I remembered how heavy the silence was because none of us could grasp for a few moments what we had just witnessed.

I was in the sixth grade when this happened. They had gathered us all into a classroom to watch the launch live. And I remember seeing all the teachers crying. Two years later when I was in the 8th grade we had a class trip to Washington DC. One place we visited was Arlington National Cemetery. I remember seeing the Challenger Memorial and getting a picture off it.

I never watched the Challenger disaster ..i was very young..but saw later on on tv and youtube as i grew older. But Columbia rentry is something i saw live on NASA tv or something..i clearly remember when they lost contact and then visuals started coming from local news channels from Texas and it was devastating.....i used to regularly watch the launch and reentry of every space shuttle from the 90s forward..just like i try to watch SpaceX, Boeing, ULA and other new startups in this space. Columbia breaks my heart ...such gifted astronauts just like in Challenger and very early in the Apollo missions when we lost 3 future astronauts on the ground while testing in a fire. Great reaction bro ..keep doing such videos on docuseries on space etc.

I remember Challenger very well. I was in High School in the US at the time. We called it "7-up" since there were 7 people on the Shuttle, many grim and tasteless jokes back then

I was working, at night, while going to college in the day. That day I had off and planned to view the Challenger liftoff. I got food ready, then went to the biggest TV in the house. Then I watched as the challenger broke apart. This many years later, I still tear.

I remember that day, shock and crying all around. We watched people die live on tv.

I was 13, in 7th grade. I remember watching the launch. My 4th grade teacher had applied for the position on Challenger. We were all in shock when it happened. The words “throttle up” always provoke a shudder in me. This was for us like JFK was for our parents. We will always remember where we were when it happened. 😢

My son was7yrs.old and watched it in his classroom. I watched at home with my 4 yr old. When my son came home he just said, Please don't talk about it. 😢

I watched this in elementary school, we were all excited about a teacher in space. As a child it was hard to comprehend what happened. LOTS of teacher hugs that day. 😢

“Roger, Challenger, go at throttle up…” Words seared into my memory, and a day I can remember like it was yesterday, I was in the cafeteria lunch line at school (Berwick Academy in South Berwick Maine) about five people away from getting my horrible ‘grease burger’ (seilers food service was infamously crap back then) when word filtered up the line that the “space shuttle just blew up” I thought it was a joke made in poor taste, so I didn’t pay much attention until after lunch, went into Spanish language class, and there was a TV/VCR cart in class, and we NEVER watched movies… The teacher confirmed the loss of the space shuttle and showed the video, the rest of the day just felt …hazy, especially as Christa Macullife was a teacher in Concord NH, about an hour-ish away from us… it made it hit closer to home for us. The worst part was, this was preventable, the disaster was caused by NASA ‘bean counters’ (management) not wanting to ‘lose face’ and scrub another launch, even though the engineers were *SCREAMING* not to launch that day (below freezing temperatures compromised a sealing o-ring in the SRB (Solid Rocket Booster) facing the camera. If you watch the video closely, you’ll see a tiny arc of flame jump across from the mid-bottom of the SRB to the main LOX (Liquid Oxygen) tank below the orbiter itself. Bean Counters have NO PLACE in engineering decisions, bean counters are the natural enemy of engineers, bean counters should stick to money decisions, and leave engineering decisions to engineers.

I was in 3rd grade and can still remember my teacher, Mr Petersen, running into our class with the TV so we could watch the take-off live. Can you imagine seeing this live as an 8 year old!!?? I don't know about anybody else, but this haunted me for a long time.

I was in 4th grade watching this when it happend. My teacher started weeping and that's when we all kinda knew something went wrong. (Alot of students had never scene a shuttle launch) I want to say that we were let out of school early that day too.. My memory is a little fuzzy after it happened. Plus I was 9 years old and 46 now. Those words, "Challenger, go with throttle up." are forever etched into my brain.

7:42 that’s exactly what they did along with adding heaters (not on the SLS vehicle). Scott Manley has a fantastic video on the design of solid motors. Also, there was about to be much more dangerous missions after this. Two launches included an expanded Centaur stage to launch Galileo and Ulysses. Known as the “Death Star” missions (61-F and 61-G), one of the selected commanders, Fred Hauck, even allowed his crew members to resign from the flight if they wanted.

I was studying Radio/TV Broadcasting that day. Man, did we get a crash course in how to deal with and report on a disaster in near real-time. A very interesting education that day.

I was in athletics class when it happened because i ran track and getting in reps, so I didn't get to see it happen live. My next class was band and as soon as the class started, our director told everyone what had happened. After that was lunch and then Economics. That teacher turned on the TV and we watched the news the whole class.

Its the fact that all their families were there watching it in person. I just can't even begin to imagine.

I was in elementary school watching live on TV, like most kids in the US were. I’ll never forget that day. And I’m sorry, I had to lol when Kabir asked if it was going to the Space Station. I sometimes forget how young he is, or how old I am. There was no space station back then. That didn’t come till a decade later.

I lived east of Dallas and the spaceship could be seen and heard as it came apart over my head. A day I will never forget.

The launch was from Florida 54 degrees is below average it doesn’t usually get that cold

I watched that in high school when it happened.

My senior year in high school. They had rolled the cart with the TV into the cafeteria so we could all watch. I remember exactly where I was standing and the pattern of the pieces as they blew up. To this day this still brings me to tears. 😢

January 28,1986. I will never forget sitting in my U.S. History class watching the launch. When the Challenger exploded I remember seeing the detonation and then the next thing I remember was the nurse's office being surrounded by a group of teachers constantly asking me what is wrong. I couldn't speak and they eventually called the ambulance and my parents. I was severely traumatized by the event and the teachers watched me like hawks when I returned to school. There were several students who got suspended for repeating a joke that was going around about NASA being horrible at making soda because they couldn't get 7 up. The subject was a very touchy thing for a couple of months until I was able to get some counseling. My reaction to the explosion was shock because I come from a very large family and Christa McAuliffe was a 2nd cousinon my father's side of the family. I watched my 2nd cousin die on national television along with several milion other children. I was haunted by the repeated news stories showing the video of the disaster for months because it was shown on every newscast on every channel for months.