The image captures a poignant moment as the seven crew members of the Space Shuttle Challenger make their way to board the spacecraft. Tragically, 73 seconds into the launch, the Challenger exploded and disintegrated, resulting in the loss of all seven lives on board.
by Ok-Professional-
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Big Bird was supposed to be on that flight….
This is a very poignant and painful photo. It’s one of the few events that I remember where I was at the time.
Except they might not have been dead in 73 seconds is the horrifying part.
Sad it was something as minuscule as O-rings that caused all of this. I was in an unfortunate situation to see National Airlines flight 102 crash because nylon straps were used instead of metal chains to restrain the cargo. Killed everyone onboard; could have injured or killed me as I was beside the crash zone 30 minutes prior, awaiting air traffic control approval to cross the runway.
That was tragic. I was watching that launch.
I remember watching it launch, and disintegrate on TV when I was young. It was some crazy shit.
What does NASA stand for?
Need Another Seven Astronauts
Fucking yearssssss of schooling… down the drain
I watched this live. It was a terrible, horrible tragedy.
Was something at the time wasn’t it
It’s a powerful reminder of both human ambition and the inherent risks of exploration. The Challenger disaster was a devastating moment in history that highlighted the bravery of the astronauts who push the boundaries of what’s possible. Seeing this image makes the tragedy even more personal—it’s not just a historical event but a reminder of the individuals and families affected. Their legacy continues to inspire advancements in space exploration and safety today.
Did the scientist try and abort due to weather conditions? Or am I remembering things wrong.
I was 18-year-old driving a truck down route 79 heading north in Fall River Massachusetts when I heard the news I pulled over and I will never forget it very very sad
I guess Nasa never fully got back after that.
I remember it like it was yesterday. The look of dread and incomprehension on Christa McAuliffe’s mother’s face, the corkscrewing SRBs, and the fireball that hid the horrible truth that at least some of the astronauts survived the forces that ripped the orbiter apart and were alive for some time during the *2 minutes, 45 seconds* it took Challenger’s crew capsule to impact the ocean’s surface. (As evidenced by the activated Personal Egress Air Packs that were recovered.)
As seared into my memory as those images is the *”Challenger, go at throttle up.”* command from Richard O. Covey. So much so that I’d catch myself holding my breath at this command from CapCom for every subsequent shuttle launch until the program ended.
*Ad astra per astera.* (A rough road leads to the stars.)
I saw a long drawn-out documentary about this on Netflix or something, and they spent 10x as long talking about one of the women as they did anyone else in the crew. It was shit.
IIRC NASA (or who ever) think that they likely survived the initial breakup and only died when they hit the ground.
It is theorized that some of the crews survived the initial breakup after explosion. There were some theories that steering commands, electrical power and supplementary O2 were attempted. Extremely disturbing when you think that they survived for almost 3 minutes to an unavoidable death.
That was definitely a day in American history on which we all remembered where we were when we heard the news.