First American in space Alan Shepard (1961). I was 8 years old. Recommended reading: The Right Stuff if you are interested in the post WWII history of American aerospace. Great read.
JFK- 3rd grade announcement at school over the PA. I don’t remember if school was let out early.
I was sick at home that day and lying in front of the TV watching the launch live. Would have been ninth grade for me I think (15). I could not believe what was happening.Challenger explosion is the first I can actually remember. I was in 3rd grade and the whole class was watching the launch on TV.
These TV and VCR's on roller carts because not every classroom could have a television.
Challenger explosion is the first I can actually remember. I was in 3rd grade and the whole class was watching the launch on TV.
These TV and VCR's on roller carts because not every classroom could have a television.
I was sick at home that day and lying in front of the TV watching the launch live. Would have been ninth grade for me I think (15). I could not believe what was happening.
I had watched a few of these launches before and recall seeing flame coming from areas it should not have before the actual explosion. I was thinking, "That's odd, it doesn't look right. The other launches looked different." And then it exploded.I was home that Tuesday too and watched the launch, not as a kid but in my 40s. I was really as excited as a kid though, because I had two comp days off that week, and so could watch it, and was delighted the launch was actually happening because it had been delayed like what, four or five times already?
Anyway I felt it was a stroke of luck... that I must have been meant to be able to watch it, and it was making a comp day's lazy breakfast even more special. I was having a second coffee. And then...
Honestly I could not comprehend what I was looking at there. Then the NASA public-facing system, "We have a report by the flight dynamics officer that the vehicle has exploded". So many things went through my head in fragments, like: what... what? oh no, no... and how could they even get those words out like that... and then realizing: oh my god every kid in the country just saw and heard that.
Could not imagine being a teacher of third graders that morning.. I still think about that announcement sometimes, how the guy just said it almost the same as if announcing downrange altitude and speed... but instead saying what he had to say because he had to say it. It must have been an complete out of body experience to be able to say it though.
My father served in the Korean War and was out before they started drafting people. Consequently, Vietnam was not the war under discussion in my home nor did I know anyone that ended up there. I think I was probably a year and a half old when it ended. My father got into aerospace though in the mid-60s and that was the ride he took until his retirement in 1995.I was born right in the middle of the Cold War/Space Race, Sputnik was launched about half a year before I was born. I don't really remember the Kennedy assassination, other than my dad going into his "The communists! The communists!" mode. I definitely remember seeing Vietnam War coverage, and a few of the older kids I knew died over there.
...the aftermath..
Gene Kranz was in the control room during the Shuttle disaster but he wasn't in charge of the mission and had no say on Go/No go. I imagine, if he had been things might have been different.I've always wondered what the effect was on school kids who saw it.
For involved adults, I mean that worked for NASA or as contractors, regret was palpable in interviews of a lot of the engineers and other employees after Challenger. I remember one guy who had worked on the X15 test protocols before working on space shuttles, saying something like they had all been trained not to do some of the things they did in arriving at decision to put a go on that launch... ignoring stuff like the fact they were working below recommended minimums and at or below margins of ambient air temperature they'd gone with before. Yet at the time, they went along in the end, the pressure was on to get the launch done after all the delays. Horrible to live with that for the rest of a lifetime and no way to rewind the tape.
Spaceflight will never tolerate carelessness, incapacity, and neglect. Somewhere, somehow, we screwed up. It could have been in design, build, or test. Whatever it was, we should have caught it.
We were too gung ho about the schedule and we locked out all of the problems we saw each day in our work. Every element of the program was in trouble and so were we. The simulators were not working, Mission Control was behind in virtually every area, and the flight and test procedures changed daily. Nothing we did had any shelf life. Not one of us stood up and said, "Dammit, stop!"
I don't know what Thompson's committee will find as the cause, but I know what I find. We are the cause! We were not ready! We did not do our job. We were rolling the dice, hoping that things would come together by launch day, when in our hearts we knew it would take a miracle. We were pushing the schedule and betting that the Cape would slip before we did.
From this day forward, Flight Control will be known by two words: "Tough and Competent." Tough means we are forever accountable for what we do or what we fail to do. We will never again compromise our responsibilities. Every time we walk into Mission Control we will know what we stand for.
Competent means we will never take anything for granted. We will never be found short in our knowledge and in our skills. Mission Control will be perfect.
When you leave this meeting today you will go to your office and the first thing you will do there is to write "Tough and Competent" on your blackboards. It will never be erased. Each day when you enter the room these words will remind you of the price paid by Grissom, White, and Chaffee. These words are the price of admission to the ranks of Mission Control.
The Falklands war.
I have a similar memory for the UKs 2005 general election*, I mainly remember all the coloured boxes and tickers and other assorted graphics on the screen and had to ask mum what it was all about (even though I was almost 10 at the time? Maybe seems a bit old to not understand it but I guess you have more important things on your mind at that age xD)First awareness of something bigger than my own little world: Election night returns for Carter. I would have been 6. Saw it at my friends house, who had a color TV in his room and was no older than me. Should tell you something for 1976.
First actual big news story that held my attention because it was serious: Iran hostage crisis. I would have been 9.
First actual big news story that caused me to become aware of the world and not retreat back into my own little space: Invasion of Grenada. I would have been 13.
First serious incident of big news that caused me to realize that the US military was not invincible: The shootdown of an F-111 Raven during the bombing of Libya in 1986. I was 15.
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I was sick at home that day and lying in front of the TV watching the launch live. Would have been ninth grade for me I think (15). I could not believe what was happening.
Berlin wall coming down.
I was upset I didn't get to see it happen in person. I was in Germany with my brother in 1987-1989 and left shortly before it happened.I remember that as though it took place yesterday.
I remember that as though it took place yesterday.
well, I was 8
still feels like yesterday
I was upset I didn't get to see it happen in person. I was in Germany with my brother in 1987-1989 and left shortly before it happened.
My big new stories was Nixon resigns, the 80s Challenger explosion, the Wall coming down and the Gulf War! After that the Second Gulf War and the aftermath!