It was 30 years ago today that the Space Shuttle Challenger
exploded upon takeoff. Amongst the
astronauts onboard was Christa McAuliffe, a teacher from New Hampshire.
This is another one of those incidents to record in your
family history. Where were you when it happened? What were you doing? What was
your reaction?
I had completed my Associate’s Degree in Business
Administration the prior May. I was thinking I didn’t want to continue with
college then and was working in a Convenience Store in Auburn. My Dad and
brother were the owners of the store and we were all there that day as their
wholesale oil business operated out of the back office and Dad, although disability-retired,
liked to hang out and talk with customers.
We knew the launch was that day, but didn’t have a
television in the store and the radio was tuned to a music station, if it was
on at all. Sometime shortly after the launch a customer came into the store and
told us the shuttle had exploded on takeoff. As he was known as a practical
joker, this was taken to be a sick joke and we laughed about it. Nothing was
really thought about it, until a short while later I was hearing the same thing
from other customers as I cashed them out.
Tuning the radio to a news station, we realized the truth of
what had happened and continued listening to the newscast in horror. My Dad and
brother, being older, probably knew of the dangers of space travel, but the
first lunar landing was when I was a toddler. I had grown up thinking of it as
not much more dangerous than traveling in a car or an airplane. This was about
the first I had thought about space travel as how awesome and brave a challenge
it actually was.
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