Challenger

[jimz66]

:salute: :pray:

[GreyGhost]

I remember that morning so well ...

-Gregg

[Jay Chladek]

That is a day I kind of want to forget. In my research I figured out why it happened and know a lot about what transpired before and after. But, it doesn't make it any easier. Its pretty bad when you can tell AT A GLANCE when a documentary or news show (or even youtube video) is using Challenger launch footage, even if they don't show the fireball itself or the crew walking out and the footage might be just a tiny snippet. I can pick out all the details of the orbiter (I don't have to see the name on the fuselage or the wing), the pad, the clear blue sky, the exact colors of the ET and trace the motions as it leaves the pad and does its yaw, pitch manuever since I have seen that footage so many times (intentionally or unintentionally). That is all I need to see to know it is Challenger.

First time I visited KSC in 1988-89 on a high school trip, the first thing I did when we took the bus trip by the pad was to look up and think to where it was in the sky the fireball might have been visible. Seeing three shuttle launches up close (with one going from Pad 39B, plus Ares 1-X from Pad 39B) since then means I can now project the full mental picture of that day with maybe the shuttle's position in the sky being a little different due to its target orbit. One thing I like about watching a shuttle launch in person is you don't hear the "go for throttle up" call as that always gives me a little pause when I watch launches on television.

The thing that sucks the most though is since we don't have a US based manned launch capability right now with shuttle retired, I am starting to think that the 51L crew and the 107 crew did die in vain afterall. Only thing that will change that in my heart is when a new US space launch capability begins flying.

Edited January 29, 2012 by Jay Chladek

[AVGBob]

I remember it and I was almost four years old. It is one of the first things I can recall watching on TV with my parents(besides Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers). I would akin it to my generations tragic version of the moon landing. I remember crying to my dad and asking him why they made the spaceship crash, and asking if the astronauts would be OK. He told me they were sent up to Heaven to be with God. Kinda getting teary eyed right now writing this.....Those repressed emotions are all coming back....Damn that S**t sucked.

[Alvis 3.1]

"Roger...you are go for throttle up." A moment I shall always recall.

In memorial to those who died that day on 51-L, as well as STS 107, Apollo 1, and Soyuz 1 and 11.

Al P.

[TomcatFanatic123]

Yeah, ever since that fateful day, I always cringe a little at the "Go at throttle up" call. I was only 5 years old when it happened, but I remember being home sick from school that day, and my grandma, who was babysitting me while mom was at work, watching the news, and seeing it over and over again. I was too young to understand what was going on, but I knew it wasn't good. My grandfather worked on the Titan III series of boosters out here at Vandenberg, and I remember asking him when he came home from work that afternoon, "Papa, could something like that ever happen to what you work on?" and then, about 4 months later, a Titan 34D booster blew up on the pad seconds after liftoff, caused by a similar (not exactly the same, since the SRB assemblies were a bit different) issue to what doomed Challenger. The only saving grace was that the Titan booster was unmanned.

[ipms33206]

"They slipped the surly bonds of Earth to touch the face of God." - President Ronald Reagan

[Aigore]

I remember being so jealous of the teacher who got to go on the mission....

I was 12 year at the time and I rememeber 1986 being one of those way too interesting years...it started with challenger and then we got Chernobyl and a specifcly Swedish trauma was the murder of our prime minister Olof Palme.

But it was also the year of Glasnost and perestroika...the beginning of the end of the cold war.

[71roadrunner426]

I was a senior in high school, we were watching the shuttle launch in electronics class, and then the unthinkable happened. Very very sad day.

[Scott R Wilson]

I was at Moron AB, Spain near Sevilla (Seville) on the very last TDY trip (Temporary Duty) the 86 TFW at Ramstein did with the F-4E before converting to the F-16. By the way, it's pronounced "More-OWN" for those who don't know. Anyway it was late afternoon, I'd got off work and was back at the barracks laying on my bed reading a book. One of my co-workers came running down the hall shouting that the shuttle just blew up. This guy had a bit of a reputation for exaggerating so I said, "yeah, right!". He told me to turn on my radio, which I did. Pieces were still falling into the ocean. My heart just sank. I'd seen Challenger being delivered to Edwards from Palmdale, and a few days later saw Challenger fly out of Edwards heading to Florida for its first spaceflight. And some months later I saw Challenger land at Edwards after its first spaceflight. It felt like losing a close friend, much more personal than it should have I think.

We had no TV at Moron, so a few days later they flew a TV down to us with a videotape of the explosion. That was the first we saw of it. I still couldn't believe it.

Here's some of the photos I took of Challenger. Delivery to Edwards, July 1, 1982:

Delivery to Cape Canaveral from Edwards, July 4, 1982. Columbia had just landed and was still on the hard runway so they used the lakebed for takeoff:

Being towed back in after first spaceflight, April 19, 1983:

[fulcrum1]

Looking back I was too young (five or six) to really understand what death was. I knew it blew up like the rest of the kids in school, but I didn't make a correlation that people had died. I thought it was pretty cool at the time. Also didn't understand that those people who came in during the following days were grief counselors.

Edited January 29, 2012 by fulcrum1

[Jay Chladek]

Nice photos there Scott. Challenger was pretty cool to see all nice and clean like that compared to the patch work appearance of Columbia on its trek from Palmdale to KSC. That was a pretty heady day to see Columbia land, the crew and the president speak at the conclusion of the 4 flight test program (with the speech taking place in front of Enterprise) and seeing Challenger on the 747 take off down the runway. That was one day where even as a 12 year old kid, I felt very proud to be an American.

Challenger was your ship. Columbia was mine as I had seen her up close on two occasions. The first was a visit to Kelly AFB after STS-2 or 3 (not entirely sure which one) and I shot a polaroid or two of it. Challenger I saw maybe a year later during recess in the school yard in San Antonio as the 747 was headed to Kelly for a refuelling stop. But I got my best opportunity to see Columbia one more time in 1985 after my family moved to Nebraska when it was on its way back to KSC after a minor refit in Palmdale as the 747 landed at Offutt AFB. Offutt treated it like an airshow that day with loud speakers playing music from Star Trek II. Somewhere in my archives I have a Beta video cassette of the visit as my dad shot video with a camera that day. But, I have no workable Beta VCR to play it on. The only other time we had a shuttle visit Offutt was Atlantis, returning to KSC on the 747 at the conclusion of mission STS-117 (ironically after launching Nebraska's first astronaut into orbit).

[plane bum]

I was just starting my 1st class of the day gym class, the gym teacher had it on a portable handheld tv he asked me to come over since that moment it has been fried into my brain, after watching it break up into many parts i went back into lockerroom got regular clothes on and left the school it was 2 days later i finaly went back to school. IT has affected me in many ways, but every year on that tragic day and on feb 1 i wake up say a prayer and have a moment of silence. At nigth i watched every newscast, and read every newspaper article.

[Scott R Wilson]

Nice photos there Scott. Challenger was pretty cool to see all nice and clean like that compared to the patch work appearance of Columbia on its trek from Palmdale to KSC. That was a pretty heady day to see Columbia land, the crew and the president speak at the conclusion of the 4 flight test program (with the speech taking place in front of Enterprise) and seeing Challenger on the 747 take off down the runway. That was one day where even as a 12 year old kid, I felt very proud to be an American.

Challenger was your ship. Columbia was mine as I had seen her up close on two occasions. The first was a visit to Kelly AFB after STS-2 or 3 (not entirely sure which one) and I shot a polaroid or two of it. Challenger I saw maybe a year later during recess in the school yard in San Antonio as the 747 was headed to Kelly for a refuelling stop. But I got my best opportunity to see Columbia one more time in 1985 after my family moved to Nebraska when it was on its way back to KSC after a minor refit in Palmdale as the 747 landed at Offutt AFB. Offutt treated it like an airshow that day with loud speakers playing music from Star Trek II. Somewhere in my archives I have a Beta video cassette of the visit as my dad shot video with a camera that day. But, I have no workable Beta VCR to play it on. The only other time we had a shuttle visit Offutt was Atlantis, returning to KSC on the 747 at the conclusion of mission STS-117 (ironically after launching Nebraska's first astronaut into orbit).

I have photos I took of Columbia as she stopped in at Kelly AFB with the tiles still incomplete. I was living in San Antonio at the time. I haven't scanned those, but I should. Later I ticked off my boss and took a half day off from work to go see Columbia at Bergstrom AFB after its second spaceflight when she was on her way back to KSC.

Jay, were you there at Edwards on July 4, 1982? I was sitting way down the ramp just past the 747 SCA with Challenger on top and so missed hearing Reagan talk, though he did drive right by me in his Limosine. When Columbia landed earlier I was up on the hill where the FAA ARTCC was, and I got some good though distant photos of her landing. Once she was on the ground I drove over to the ramp to get the photos I posted above. I'd seen Enterprise up close a couple of times already so didn't bother fighting the crowd to see it again.

If you ever want to know the dates you saw a shuttle before 1988, check out this site:

http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/technology/sts-newsref/sts-cron.html

Here's photos I took of Enterprise:

And photos I took of Columbia at Bergstrom, November 25, 1981:

And a few of the photos I took of Columbia landing, July 4, 1982:

And a couple of photos I took of Enterprise on the SCA at the Paris Air Show, 1983:

Edited January 30, 2012 by Scott R Wilson

[Jennings]

Great pics you guys! Holy cow.

I remember that day very well. I was a 2nd Lt in the Air Force, stationed at Elmendorf. We got a lot of VIP visitors at our unit due to our convenient refueling stopover location, and some Army 2 star (long forgotten) and his entourage were due that day. The Flight Commander on day shift got the duty to give the classified dog & pony show for visiting VIPs, and that was my day. That as the only time I ever wore blue clothes to work :) I was setting up my slides and giving the script a run-through in the briefing room when my ops officer stuck his head in the door to see how I was doing. On his way out, he matter of factly said "Oh, and the Space Shuttle just blew up.." as if he were saying "Oh, and I just made some coffee if you want some" or something like that. Not the most empathetic human being I'd ever met. The rest of the day, as the mission allowed, we rotated everybody on my flight (about 35 enlisted troops) down to the day room in the non-secure part of the building where the only TV was located to watch the proceedings. I'll never forget that day as long as I live...

[jimz66]

I was in school that day and I remember that a girl in the class had called her grandmother and she told her what had happened... I was in fourth grade I think... I still remember Peter Jennings with tears in his eyes when I watched the footage later in the day...

We had this kid in class I think he was from Yugoslavia or somewhere, anyway the kid was punk... He is the first one I ever heard say NASA stood for Need Another Blank Blank... I won't say it but you all know what I mean...

[jimz66]

Thanks for posting all those nice pics Scott...

[Jay Chladek]

Well, unfortunately I wasn't at Edwards for the STS-4 landing (I wish I was). But I remember the coverage on television that day as it was probably the last time a shuttle event got major coverage on the networks and CNN prior to Challenger. Part of the reason I remember it so well is because I had wondered what happened to Enterprise. So to see Reagan and company standing in front of it was quite the sight. You didn't miss much not seeing Enterprise up close again as I recall it didn't even have the dummy OMS pods installed. I believe they removed those and converted them for use as placeholders for use when the shuttles got rotated through Palmdale for refits as typically the forward RCS module and OMS pods aren't seen on a shuttle during a ferry flight, unless it is going back to KSC after a landing at Edwards (or White Sands in the case of Columbia after STS-3).

While I've seen launches, I regret a little that I've never seen a landing in person. Closest I got to seeing a shuttle pass overhead on reentry was for STS-120. Commander Pam Melroy successfully lobbied NASA to perform a descending node reentry and descent over the USA (the first since STS-107) and the flight track was going to take it west of Lincoln, NE. So I got permission from my boss in case I was a few minutes late getting to work that day (I had an afternoon shift) and drove to just west of Lincoln (Seward, NE airport I believe was where I ended up). Well, I didn't see it, but I did hear the sonic boom as it was a dull rumble. It was unmistakeable as a boom though (just not a boom boom as the shuttle was too high and fast to generate two booms off the nose and tail). The mechanics in the airport at Seward heard it and a boom was also heard around Omaha. When I told Pam Melroy about it almost a year later in an interview I conducted, she said I was probably the furthest west of anyone who said they heard a boom and she had a bet going on with somebody else in the astronaut office as to when a boom theoretically could be heard. Since that mission, the shuttle only ever did one other descending node reentry, but the track was too far south to see from Omaha (it would have been visible just off to the north if they had come back on the first orbit).

As for up close and personal shots of shuttle, I've got them from the RSS rollback images on the launches I've attended of course. But I did also manage to shoot several shots of Atlantis when it was in Offutt after the STS-117 mission. This one is my favorite:

[Andre]

Not the most empathetic human being I'd ever met.

Which, eh, is one way of putting it.

I was 15 at the time and remember it well, watching the news. As I did a paper round at the time to feed my modeling needs, the next morning I was confronted over and over with the huge photos of the exploding Shuttle on the front page of every newspaper I delivered.

Andre

[HOLMES]

[Tony P]

Thank you for those historic pictures Scott.

[curt66140]

I also will never forget this day, I was at work when it happened. My boss's wife called and told us about it and we watched the tv in disbelief the rest of the day as events unfolded. By the way this quote "They slipped the surly bonds of Earth to touch the face of God." - President Ronald Reagan is actually part of a poem called "High Flight by John Gillespie Magee Jr. This is the full poem:

"High Flight"

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth

And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;

Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth

of sun-split clouds,  and done a hundred things

You have not dreamed of  wheeled and soared and swung

High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,

I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung

My eager craft through footless halls of air....

Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue

I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace.

Where never lark, or even[8] eagle flew â€â€

And, while with silent lifting mind I have trod

The high untrespassed sanctity of space,

- Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

Its one of the most beautiful poems ever written about flight, and sums the dream of flight up perfectly.

[curt66140]

Ok actually now that I read the whole thing the President parafrased the poem. and the offending [8] before eagle in the poem sliped by me also, so I'll shup up now.

Curt

[Scott R Wilson]

Thank you for those historic pictures Scott.

I was just lucky as heck to be able to be there and take all of those. The Challenger delivery shots in particular were pure luck. I was stationed at George AFB and knew a gal also stationed there who happened to be Lesbian. She had a girlfriend from her tech school days who was stationed at Edwards. My friend didn't yet have a car and asked me if I'd drive her up to Edwards so she could visit with her girlfriend. I didn't have anything else going on, so agreed. I brought my camera just in case I saw anything interesting. I meant aircraft wise, get your mind out of the gutter!

We got to the barracks at Edwards, girlfriend wasn't there. So we went over to a snackbar to get something to eat. I didn't want to leave my camera in the car so I brought it in with me. Some guy saw it and asked me if we were there to photograph the shuttle. I asked what shuttle was he talking about, and he told me Challenger was coming from Palmdale in an hour or two and what road it'd be coming up. So we drove over there and waited. Like I said, complete luck. Had girlfriend been home, had my friend not asked for the ride to Edwards that day, had the guy not seen my camera and made his remarks, I wouldn't have got those photos.