20 Years after Challenger

b_sinning

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Nov 22, 2004
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Savannah, GA
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Has it already been 20 years since the Challenger was destroyed? It happened Jan. 28, 1986. What do you guys remember about it?
I remember my Dad keeping my sisters and I home from school that day just to watch it. My Dad worked out of town for weeks at a time so it was a real treat to actually stay home with him for something like this. I'm not sure if I ever remember doing that any aother time in my life. We were watching it on TV and were just stunned when it blew up. One of those moments you will never forget.
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I was reminded of it by an interesting article on msnbc about titled "7 myths about the Challenger shuttle disaster : It didn't explode, the crew didn't die instantly and it wasn't inevitable" http://msnbc.msn.com/id/11031097http://msnbc.msn.com/id/11031097

This was the myth that really got me.

Myth #3: The crew died instantly
The flight, and the astronauts’ lives, did not end at that point, 73 seconds after launch. After Challenger was torn apart, the pieces continued upward from their own momentum, reaching a peak altitude of 65,000 ft before arching back down into the water. The cabin hit the surface 2 minutes and 45 seconds after breakup, and all investigations indicate the crew was still alive until then.

What's less clear is whether they were conscious. If the cabin depressurized (as seems likely), the crew would have had difficulty breathing. In the words of the final report by fellow astronauts, the crew “possibly but not certainly lost consciousness”, even though a few of the emergency air bottles (designed for escape from a smoking vehicle on the ground) had been activated.

The cabin hit the water at a speed greater than 200 mph, resulting in a force of about 200 G’s — crushing the structure and destroying everything inside. If the crew did lose consciousness (and the cabin may have been sufficiently intact to hold enough air long enough to prevent this), it’s unknown if they would have regained it as the air thickened during the last seconds of the fall. Official NASA commemorations of “Challenger’s 73-second flight” subtly deflect attention from what was happened in the almost three minutes of flight (and life) remaining AFTER the breakup.
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Can you imagine if they didn't die when everone thought they had and were actually awake falling that fast and watching the water racing up at them. Crazy stuff.

Try to rememeber to have a toast later to the people that died that day and in all the other NASA accidents over the years. Only by pushing forward will we one day live among the stars.
 
I was a little kid in Norway at the time. I was at my friend Kevin's house, and he was a NASA and space freak. Shuttle models and posters all over his room. Everything was NASA with this guy. His mom came in and told us and we all ran to the t.v., but of course it had taken a few hours for news to reach Norway, so by then it was relatively old news.

Several minutes later she made us sandwiches and we went out to play baseball.
 
I wonder if they do like on airplanes with the oxygen masks. When an emergency situation happens the masks come down and people huff away on them. The maks have increased oxygen ratio to induce a mild eurphoic feeling and helps make the people calmer but more docile. Let them go with a smile on their faces.
 
I was in elementary school. All the kids were put in the cafeteria with TVs set up to watch the space launch. So the entire elementary school, kids kindergarden - 5th grade watched the tragedy.

Kids started crying, teachers were bawling, as soon as there was that big flash, teachers scurried to turn the TVs off and we were all taken back to our classrooms and not a word was said about it.
 
I was wandering the halls at school while skipping science class and one of my buddies told me it had happened...went into the library and watched it over and over
 
I watched it with the whole elementary school in the cafeteria. the principle shut the tv off ass soon as it happened.

on that note...
















































How did they know the Krista McCullough (sp?) had dandruff?










they found her head & shoulders on the beach.

What does NASA stand for?
















Need Another Seven Astronauts.

What was the last thing that went through Krista McCullough's head?







































A piece of metal..




that's all I can remember from back then.