STS-107 memories...

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astronaut23

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What do you remember the day it happened?<br /><br />I gotta confess that I remember feeling real guilty after the accident because its was a non station assembly flight and I saw it as boring microgravity experiments even thought I was following it as I try to all the flights- <img src="/images/icons/frown.gif" /><br /><br />It was Columbia too which was my favorite orbiter. I liked her since she was the first and my favorite astronaut John Young got to take her up on the maiden flight.<br /><br /><br />Man I wish she was still with us. <img src="/images/icons/frown.gif" />
 
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ckikilwai

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My dad heard it on the radio the day accident happened, <br />and I first didn't believe it because I thought he misunderstood it, <br />or it was just about the Challenger accident or so.<br />But when I saw the images on the news I was quite chocked, <br />because I wasn't even born when the Challenger exploded, <br />so accidents with astronauts dying seemed to me something of the past.
 
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MeteorWayne

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So the moon landings are Waaaaaaaayyyyy back there.<br /><br />If you can see the "American Experience" episode on Apollo 8, running this week on PBS. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080"><em><font color="#000000">But the Krell forgot one thing John. Monsters. Monsters from the Id.</font></em> </font></p><p><font color="#000080">I really, really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function</font><font color="#000080"> </font></p> </div>
 
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bobblebob

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I remember it like it was yesterday. Got up, turned on Sky News for no reason inparticular, unaware of that accident. Was totally shocked and just glued to the TV for hours.<br /><br />Must admit i wasnt into anything space related as much as i am now. It might of been the tragedy that got me more interested in space travel. <br /><br />Certainly having the Internet helps, TV news stations rarely cover the shuttle missions in the UK, so i am greatful for forums like this and NASA tv
 
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spacester

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I had missed the previous landing and was really ticked at myself for that. I was totally dialed in for STS-107's return. There were arguments here on SDC about the need for a non-ISS flight, but IMO they had some really useful and just plain cool experiments on that flight and I was taking a break from NASA bashing as a result.<br /><br />I had NASA TV in one window, with another source one click away in case that failed (bandwidth was a big issue then and it was common to lose NASA TV just when things got interesting). I had these boards in another window, on the update thread. That mission was the first one of those IIRC. I had another space board on another. I had refreshed my knowledge of the re-entry time-line. I'm a night owl but I got up at 5AM for it.<br /><br />I remember it like yesterday. I'm all dialed in, really enjoying myself in full space geek mode.<br /><br />And then the air to ground call did not come. I flashed back to the delay for Apollo 8's re-entry, said "no problem, it's OK".<br /><br />Then the minutes passed, and with each second a sense of dread grew. After ten minutes had gone by without the call coming, my mind was racing with possible explanations. None made any sense. I got up from the computer. I specifically remember getting dizzy and having to sit down on the couch, the computer suddenly having become an evil thing in my living room.<br /><br />Strangely though, I do not remember just when I got the official word. I think I've blacked that moment out. After those clearly remembered minutes of waiting is just a blur. I'm pretty sure I posted on the thread here, I do remember that many of us were in full-on denial mode for at least a bit.<br /><br />The rest of the day is a blur. The weeks following were no picnic either.<br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>
 
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docm

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My wife & I were coming back to a craft show with more goods when the radio made the announcement she was lost. It so happened one of her projects was a beautiful intarsia panel of Columbia. We pulled the price tag, draped it with a black shawl provided by another dealer and put it up front.<br /><br />There were many tears shed by visitors that day. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>
 
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billslugg

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I heard it on the radio at work, and went straight home to see it on TV. I saw Columbia go up the first time. I was at a causeway in Titusville, 11 miles away. It took about 1 minute for the sound to reach us. It sounded like ripping cloth. It was the only shuttle where the external fuel tank was painted white. I later saw Columbia go up Jan 12, 1986. That time I got a pass from my uncle. We were 3.1 miles from the pad. It was much louder. The view was not as good though. It is too close for a good view of the trajectory. You need to be about 10 miles away to see the graceful curve. It was cold, but not as cold as it was two weeks later when Challenger went up. The sun was not up when it went off. At T+10 seconds it rose into sunshine. I followed it through 20x80 binoculars until it dropped below the horizon 409 miles away. <br /><br />editied to correct T+ timing <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p> </p> </div>
 
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lunatic133

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Hello all from a frequent lurker but not so frequent anymore poster. These are my memories of that awful day, strange and incoherent though they may be.<br /><br />I remember it like it happened yesterday. I was a junior in high school at the time. I remember the night before, I was upset because astronaut Jeff Ashby was at my school and I didn't hear about it until after the fact because Iwas locked in the library studying for a history test. It was very poorly announced. I had a swim meet that night and I went online later to check a space message board I frequented then (not this one). There was a thread remembering Challenger and one person said that if a disaster like that ever happened again that it would have "much more permanent" consequences. I remember thinking to myself that it wouldn't, that NASA was much too careful now to let something like that happen. And then the next morning my mom woke me up and I remember she said something awful had happened and for some reason I knew before she said anything, I knew that it had to be Columbia. <br /><br />The world had ended as far as I was concerned. I was a seventeen year old idealist who dreamt of becoming an astronaut and I was absolutely terrified that this was the end of manned spaceflight for good. As it was I'd been thinking a lot about Challenger lately, and what a blow it had struck to the future of human spaceflight in general. I was sure that a second disaster would spell out unfathomable doom. I was a complete distrought mess, probably more than i should have been, for awhile after that. My confidence in NASA was shaken. The future was uncertain and scary and I hated that.<br /><br />I remember that evening my friends wanted me to see a movie and I went along with it because i needed to do something normal for a change to get my mind off it. I tend to do stuff like that when I'm grieving. I dunno. We saw "A Guy Thing" and now whenever I see the DVD at Blockbuster I think of that terrible day. Also I boug
 
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