- Nov 19, 2001
- 27,727
- 16
- 81
meltdown75
Lifer
- Nov 17, 2004
- 37,548
- 7
- 81
I remember coming home from school for lunch and seeing it on the TV, and seeing the Pope on TV giving a live address about it. Not too sure about the Pope part. I was 10.
I was in 6th grade and we watched the price is right every day at lunch.
They switched over to shuttle coverage, then we saw it explode. They sent everyone home after that.
They switched over to shuttle coverage, then we saw it explode. They sent everyone home after that.
I heard about it when the news broke in on the radio station I was listening to at work. (WNEW-FM in NYC, back in the day). I was 22 at the time. Nobody made any jokes.
Modelworks
Lifer
- Feb 22, 2007
- 16,240
- 7
- 76
I was in high school but we were watching it in chemistry class.
Teacher was teaching about how rockets work.
I remember watching it and the room was just silent.
The teacher didn't move and neither did any of us.
It was one of those moments when your truly speechless.
Lasted for a couple minutes.
Teacher was teaching about how rockets work.
I remember watching it and the room was just silent.
The teacher didn't move and neither did any of us.
It was one of those moments when your truly speechless.
Lasted for a couple minutes.
You need to read this:
Challenger Revealed: An Insider's Account of How the Reagan Administration Caused the Greatest Tragedy of the Space Age (Hardcover)
by Richard C. Cook (Author)
Text
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. A gripping true-life thriller that describes the struggle to discover and disseminate the truth about the 1986 destruction of the space shuttle Challenger, this book provides new and startling material, presented in a spellbinding narrative with direct relevance to the current state of the US government. Former NASA resource analyst Cook, whose long public service record includes 20 years at the Treasury Department, rocketed from anonymous bureaucrat to public fame during the Challenger investigation, and later was awarded the Cavallo Foundation's Award for Moral Courage in Business and Government, for his efforts to uncover the facts about the faulty O-ring seals that led the shuttle's solid rocket boosters to explode. Easily the most informative and important book on the disaster, Cook's work is meticulously documented, augmenting his own insider knowledge with transcripts, memoranda, reports and interviews to provide the first truly comprehensive book on what happened on January 28, 1986, and why. Tracing the history of the space shuttle's design and development, Cook leads readers step-by-step, decision-by-decision to the tragic event. Rather than an accident, Cook concludes that the disaster was the result of Reagan's autocratic management style and closed-door decision-making process. Further documentation shows how the Rogers Commission, charged with investigating the explosion, was conceived as part of a cover-up effort, which also included collusion by some NASA managers, White House operatives and commission head William Rogers. By focusing solely on equipment malfunctions and internal NASA decision-making, it seems that Rogers evaded the most important question: why was it so important to those in power to launch the shuttle on that day? This account, featuring many players still working in government today, is essential reading on the topics of NASA and US government obfuscation.Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
In the days following the space shuttle Challenger disaster of 1986, Cook, then a budget analyst at NASA, leaked documents to theNew York Times. The papers acquired significance for predicting that faulty rubber seals on the solid fuel rockets could trigger a catastrophe, as the official investigation indeed concluded. In this memoir and personal investigation, Cook justifies his leak, or, from another perspective, his violation of trust, and proposes a theory for why NASA managers launched after overruling objections from the rocket engineers. It is this: President Ronald Reagan wanted Challenger in orbit with teacher Christine McAuliffe so that he could speak with her live during his State of the Union speech. Cook amasses technical evidence about violations of launch criteria, telephone calls between NASA and the White House, and hearsay from an astrologer who, Cook reports, said he was told personally by Reagan that he decided to launch. Whether Cook is holding a blank or a smoking gun, his book is sure to provoke controversy. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Book Description
The Reagan Administration pushed hard for NASA to launch shuttle mission 51L, before it was ready. 73 seconds into the launch, the shuttle exploded, killing seven people and leaving a nation traumatized.
Richard Cook, the lead resource analyst at NASA for the Solid Rocket Boosters (SRBs), was the first to warn of possible catastrophic failure. His memo, which detailed astronaut concerns and warnings from the shuttle builders at Morton Thiokol, were ignored by top NASA officials and members of the Reagan administration.
In the aftermath of the explosion, NASA launched an investigation to ?discover? the cause of the disaster. Though within NASA there was absolute certainty about the O-ring joint failure, they began a cover-up by publicly proclaiming that the cause of the explosion was unknown. A Reagan administration Commission perpetrated the same lie. And when Richard Cook realized that the Commission was not interested in revealing the truth, he acted as a true patriot and hero and leaked the original O-ring warning documents to the New York Times. His article set off a cascade of disclosures about the events leading up to the disaster, including revelations by Morton Thiokol engineers that they had tried to stop the launch.
Challenger Revealed: An Insider's Account of How the Reagan Administration Caused the Greatest Tragedy of the Space Age (Hardcover)
by Richard C. Cook (Author)
Text
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. A gripping true-life thriller that describes the struggle to discover and disseminate the truth about the 1986 destruction of the space shuttle Challenger, this book provides new and startling material, presented in a spellbinding narrative with direct relevance to the current state of the US government. Former NASA resource analyst Cook, whose long public service record includes 20 years at the Treasury Department, rocketed from anonymous bureaucrat to public fame during the Challenger investigation, and later was awarded the Cavallo Foundation's Award for Moral Courage in Business and Government, for his efforts to uncover the facts about the faulty O-ring seals that led the shuttle's solid rocket boosters to explode. Easily the most informative and important book on the disaster, Cook's work is meticulously documented, augmenting his own insider knowledge with transcripts, memoranda, reports and interviews to provide the first truly comprehensive book on what happened on January 28, 1986, and why. Tracing the history of the space shuttle's design and development, Cook leads readers step-by-step, decision-by-decision to the tragic event. Rather than an accident, Cook concludes that the disaster was the result of Reagan's autocratic management style and closed-door decision-making process. Further documentation shows how the Rogers Commission, charged with investigating the explosion, was conceived as part of a cover-up effort, which also included collusion by some NASA managers, White House operatives and commission head William Rogers. By focusing solely on equipment malfunctions and internal NASA decision-making, it seems that Rogers evaded the most important question: why was it so important to those in power to launch the shuttle on that day? This account, featuring many players still working in government today, is essential reading on the topics of NASA and US government obfuscation.Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
In the days following the space shuttle Challenger disaster of 1986, Cook, then a budget analyst at NASA, leaked documents to theNew York Times. The papers acquired significance for predicting that faulty rubber seals on the solid fuel rockets could trigger a catastrophe, as the official investigation indeed concluded. In this memoir and personal investigation, Cook justifies his leak, or, from another perspective, his violation of trust, and proposes a theory for why NASA managers launched after overruling objections from the rocket engineers. It is this: President Ronald Reagan wanted Challenger in orbit with teacher Christine McAuliffe so that he could speak with her live during his State of the Union speech. Cook amasses technical evidence about violations of launch criteria, telephone calls between NASA and the White House, and hearsay from an astrologer who, Cook reports, said he was told personally by Reagan that he decided to launch. Whether Cook is holding a blank or a smoking gun, his book is sure to provoke controversy. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Book Description
The Reagan Administration pushed hard for NASA to launch shuttle mission 51L, before it was ready. 73 seconds into the launch, the shuttle exploded, killing seven people and leaving a nation traumatized.
Richard Cook, the lead resource analyst at NASA for the Solid Rocket Boosters (SRBs), was the first to warn of possible catastrophic failure. His memo, which detailed astronaut concerns and warnings from the shuttle builders at Morton Thiokol, were ignored by top NASA officials and members of the Reagan administration.
In the aftermath of the explosion, NASA launched an investigation to ?discover? the cause of the disaster. Though within NASA there was absolute certainty about the O-ring joint failure, they began a cover-up by publicly proclaiming that the cause of the explosion was unknown. A Reagan administration Commission perpetrated the same lie. And when Richard Cook realized that the Commission was not interested in revealing the truth, he acted as a true patriot and hero and leaked the original O-ring warning documents to the New York Times. His article set off a cascade of disclosures about the events leading up to the disaster, including revelations by Morton Thiokol engineers that they had tried to stop the launch.
Originally posted by: homercles337
I was in elementary school. Honors history. Its amazing how some things are remembered so clearly...
That's was some pretty lame self promotion.
MotionMan
Lifer
- Jan 11, 2006
- 17,124
- 12
- 81
I was a senior in high school. It was an off-period for me and I was hanging out in the gym. The head master came in and announced what had happened. I went to the drafting classroom (because it had the only TV in the school) and I spent most of the day there watching the news.
MotionMan
MotionMan
Originally posted by: MotionMan
I thought for sure it was George W. Bush's fault.
MotionMan
No, it wasn't Bush's fault. He wants to go to Mars. I say send him.
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