All About Pocket Knives

40 years ago today, the Space shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds after lifting off killing all 7 astronauts on board. One of those times when one remembers where they were and what they were doing.

I was sitting in the parking lot at Frostburg State with a high school bud of mine who I was commuting with, when we heard about this on the radio. We may have actually been listening to the launch on the radio at the time. We both wondered if anyone could survive such an explosion or if there were safety devices to prevent death of the astronauts. That question was soon answered.

I was working close to where I lived. I came home for lunch and my wife told me and I saw it several times on TV.
It was pretty sad.
It is amazing it was 40 years ago.

Just got back stateside from Germany yesterday (1/27/86).
Staying with friends. Frank and I were pulling into his parking spot after making a quick run for something and heard about it on the radio. Rushed in to catch the coverage on the TV.

I worked for the pet foods division of Quaker Oats, before PepsiCo merger/ buyout. I was in what we called the Minors room. We would weigh out smaller amounts of minerals and the such to go into a bigger batch. Rick B came in and said it blew up. He lived close we went there at lunch to watch some coverage.
The other thing I remember most was it was one of those Beautiful Blue Sky days, much like 911.
Like most of you not sure where 40 years slipped away.
Steve

Just pulled in to Vernon Elementary School to check on a maintenance issue and the day custodian ran out to the truck saying, "It just blew up!" Remembered saying to him, "What blew up?" The Challenger was the furthest thing from my mind at that moment.
Treefarmer

I was in early elementary school when it happened. It was the same era as the NES, Top Gun, the IBM PC starting to show up, and The Cosby Show — back when he was still seen as America’s dad, before we knew what we know now. Technology, space, jets — everything felt exciting and futuristic.

Our whole school went to the gym to watch the launch. They rolled a CRT TV in front of the bleachers. I’d never seen a rocket launch before and didn’t know what to expect.

“4, 3, 2, 1… liftoff.”

I remember being in awe of the fire blasting out of the bottom of the rocket. Everyone was excited, talking, feeling like we were witnessing history.

Then it exploded.

The room went silent.

I didn’t fully understand what I had just seen. I looked around, confused. When I asked the teachers what happened, they didn’t seem to know what to say — their answers were vague and stunned. Eventually another student told me that what we watched wasn’t supposed to happen… and that all the astronauts had died.

That moment stuck with me.

Myself and a shipmate walked into the USO in Rome, Italy we had taken a train there from Naples the day before. As we were greated the hostess asked if we had seen or heard any of the days news yet. We said no and she handed us a copy of the New York Times or the USA Today with the story front page. The USO was really sad and quite that day. My friend that I was with is Catholic and we were on our way to a public audience being held by Pope John Paul II. Many prayers were offered that day for the crew and my friend and I were able to pray at an alter in St. Peters. When we got back to the ship a couple of days later they were still showing the TV footage on our ships TV system.

I was in test and activation at Seabrook nuclear power station