28th January 2011 - Challenger's 25th Anniversary

[Kirby]

I was working at Toys By Roy in Southglenn Mall that day.

Southglenn Mall in Littleton, Colorado? I worked at Prints Plus in Southglenn.

That's the one. I was the only person they moved over from the Southwest Plaza store when they closed that one down.

Wow, small world. I lived by Southwest Plaza, off of Coal Mine Rd. and Kendall.

 

[MHT1138]

I always thought it was especially sad that the crew didn't make it to space. When the Columbia broke up upon reentry I thought that the crew had lived to complete their mission making it slightly better. Both disasters were such a loss though.

 

[Orac Zen]

I woke up even earlier than usual that morning (my time), and turned on the rather ancient b&w TV I used to have to watch the early morning news. The TV always took a while to warm up and when the picture finally came into focus I saw the shuttle in flight. I wasn't fully awake so I imagine that was one of the reasons my first thought - which I distinctly remember - was something like "A shuttle took off - so what?". Pretty shameful in hindsight, but at that stage shuttle flights had become more or less a routine event. Hardly noteworthy.

Then it exploded.

I basically freaked out, and promptly burst into tears. It was one of my first "where were you?" moments, and remains one of the most horrifying things I've ever seen.