STS-51L

[quasigeostrophy]

I was in the shower.

It was the middle of my sophomore year at IUPUI (first time there). I was still living with the 'rents, working part time at Sears in the small electronics (cameras, phones, typewriters) department. I didn't have class that day, but I had to work from 5 to 9pm.

While drying off after my shower, the phone rang. I was the only one home, so I answered it. It was my sister. Not the one also (and still) living with my parents, but the one closest to my age, who at the time was working at a bank HQ in downtown Indy.

"Do you have the TV on?" she asked.

"No."

"Turn it on. Now. Something happened with the space shuttle."

"Okay." I said and quickly ended the call.

I turned my TV on to CNN and watched, dumbfounded, while I got ready. After a short while, I decided to go on into work early. At around 1pm, I came in and watched the big wall of TVs in the electronics department (right next to my department) until I actually had to clock in at 5pm. The TV wall had a crowd in front of it until we closed that evening. I remember just sort of listlessly going through the motions at work. Fortunately, it wasn't very busy.

I remember that I hadn't been following every mission anymore, but I had a lot of interest in this one, not just because of the "Teacher in Space" thing with Christa McAuliffe, but also the TDRS-2 and SPARTAN/Halley projects. And, I'll admit it, I thought Judy Resnick was a babe. :-)

I followed the accident investigation very closely. Already fascinated by physicist Richard Feynman from stories and reading recommendations from my high school physics teacher, I thought it was so cool that a) he was not only on the Rogers commission, but he also had the chutzpah to differ with the majority in his opinion of the cause of the accident. A few years ago I read The Challenger Launch Decision which confirmed with an explanation point, the cultural and organizational aspects of the cause.

To the memories of Frank Scobee, Michael Smith, Judy Resnick, Ellison Onizuka, Ron McNair, Greg Jarvis, and Christa McAuliffe, and everyone else who has been affected by their and others' losses, let us hope this doesn't happen again for the same cultural/organizational reasons.


For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled.
-- Richard Feynman

Comments

[gasslight.livejournal.com]

Hard to believe it's been 20 years. Sigh.

[djinnthespazz.livejournal.com]

I was at work, at the jewelery store. They brought the break TV up so that it could be seen from the front desk. Over and over. Agony.

I too, had been following the teacher in space, which I thought was the coolest thing ever.

Later, at college, we did a speach project on the shuttle. Don't know how accurate our data was, but it left me with a burning anger toward Morton Thiokol.

Sigh.

Not being a risk-taker myself, I value those who take the risks all the higher.

[elmegil.livejournal.com]

My favorite coverage of the topic (well, "favorite" maybe has the wrong connotations....the BEST coverage I've seen) is in Edward Tufte's Visual Explanations. Tufte teaches about making effective presentation graphics, and he uses some of the actual diagrams used by the engineers to try to convince management there was a problem to illustrate how not to make a convincing argument from data that could have been used more effectively, and then what he would have recommended the presentation look like.

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

Heard of that book - probably from you. *goes off and adds to Amazon wish list* :-)

[elmegil.livejournal.com]

You can browse it next time you're able to make it up this way

[sweet-tea79.livejournal.com]

I was in the first grade, and because Christa McAuliffe was a teacher, there was a satellite broadcast of the launch into many schools, so we watched it live. I was a science geek from a young age, so I was excited about watching it (plus, it meant less math class). My teacher quickly turned it off once it became obvious that the launch wasn't going well, and it wasn't until I got home that my parents told me what had happened.

I can't believe it's been 20 years.

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

Sure. Make me feel old. Go ahead. :-)

[geminigirl]

It's okay. I was in fifth grade...she made me feel old too.

[sweet-tea79.livejournal.com]

There's a reason my default icon is what it is... ;)

If it makes you feel any better, I may be 26, but I've got more gray hair than I know what to do with. I have a full gray stripe down the middle of my head, but you're never going to see it (thank you, hair dye).

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

I've got more gray hair than I know what to do with.

I thought that went with being in med school.

I have a full gray stripe down the middle of my head, but you're never going to see it

Aww. Sounds similar to Rogue in the X-Men. :-)

[sweet-tea79.livejournal.com]

Well, the stripe is genetic and first started appearing when I was 14. Special. I wish I could blame it on med school. ;) And if I had red hair, it would be rather Rogue-ish. If I looked like Rogue, though, I'd keep the stripe. That'd be hot.

[bafleyanne.livejournal.com]

I was in the 5th grade myself. ;)

[geminigirl]

I was in fifth grade. We had a teacher who had gone fairly far in the Teacher in Space process as part of the 5-6 G&T Team, and we were all watching the launch as usual; we'd even gotten out of gym class to do it.

It was brutal and shocking to watch over and over again. I remember no one talking or moving or anything. Just sitting in stunned silence-even the teachers for a moment, and turning on the lights in the room. No one knew what to say. And then, for the classes that hadn't been watching, the principal made an announcement over the PA system, shattering the quiet. "Please excuse the inturruption..."

[datagoddess.livejournal.com]

I was in one of my sophomore accounting classes (in the business building, no TVs around), and during the break one of my classmates came over and said the shuttle had exploded. We didn't believe her, because she was one of the flightiest people in that room.

After class, I headed to the student lounge in the basement of Cavanaugh, where the TVs were showing the footage over and over.

It just seemed unreal.

[elmegil.livejournal.com]

I was co-opping at Fermilab. I'd just started up for the semester recently, maybe a week or two before. I worked on the 14th floor of the big tall A shaped building, where the electronics group had its main offices.

The lab has a cable TV system run throughout everywhere, normally used to broadcast various views of some of the experiments etc. I don't remember if they were covering it live (because of the whole "teacher in space" thing) or whether they simply switched to it after the disaster, but everyone had a TV to watch near their desk, and no one did much of anything else for the rest of the day. Everyone was depressed and upset about it.

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

Somewhat non-sequitur: Knowing about Fermilab fairly well because I'd been there a couple of times and knew you co-opped there, I was amused when the semester started at IUPUI this year and I was in the basement of the science building (where all the physics labs are, and happen to be named after different scientists) and noticed a sign on one of the lab doors reading Fermi Lab. Just wrong, I thought. :-)

[darthgeek.livejournal.com]

I was living in Jacksonville, FL at the time, and was in the "Young Astronauts" program at school. We went down on occasion to watch the launches. We went to see this launch partly because of the Teacher In Space program. I was 9. I was baffled, shocked, and sad.