Tuesday, January 28, 1986, is a day forever etched in my heart and mind. I was eleven years old, two months away from turning twelve. I had recovered from a very nasty flu five days prior. The New England Patriots fans were still recovering from the loss against the Chicago Bears in Super Bowl XX two days before. It was a huge deal because it was the Patriots’ first Super Bowl. The junior and senior high schools held a pep rally in the gym on the Friday before Super Bowl Sunday. Unfortunately, along with a dozen or so students, I missed it because of the flu that went around. Darn flu.
January 28, 1986, started as an exciting day for many people and me in the State of New Hampshire. After numerous delays, the Space Shuttle Challenger was to lift off shortly after 11:30 in the morning from Cape Canaveral, Florida, carrying Christa McAuliffe from Concord, New Hampshire, only a half-hour drive from my hometown in Raymond. She was chosen out of 11,000 applicants to be the first teacher in space.
I have been following NASA and its space program off and on since the first launch of Space Shuttle Columbia in 1981. As a child, I was fascinated by anything that flies. I often watched the news, and they’d air video footage from space, whether inside the space shuttle or during a spacewalk. It was neat to see what humans can do out in space.
“I touch the future. I teach.”
Christa McAuliffe
Leading up to January 28th, I followed the news about Christa McAuliffe as she went through the training and did various tasks in preparation for her trip to space. She was on several national television programs, discussing her plans to share her experiences when she returned from space. I had thought about how great it would be if she visited my school.
At eleven o’clock in the morning, my classmates and I followed our teacher, Mrs. Smith, to the media center before the launch. Ms. Thomas and her class soon joined us. We were the only two groups in the media center to watch the launch of Space Shuttle Challenger. We all sat on the floor with the television on the stage in front of us. The television turned on to WMUR Channel Nine, the closest television station we could pick up on the antenna. Mind you; this was before cable television. WMUR was already on the air, broadcasting from Cape Canaveral, Florida, with live footage of Space Shuttle Challenger perched on LaunchPad 39B.
We waited with anticipation. Then, shortly after 11:30 am, the voices of NASA’s flight controllers became active in preparation for a go-to launch, with the news commentators chiming in every so often.
Around 11:38 am, as the countdown was heard, the shuttle’s main engines ignited, and then the SRBs (Solid Rocket Boosters) ignited, lifting Challenger off the launch pad. The shuttle rolled and headed downrange. Many of us in the media center cheered. The roaring sound of the SRBs filled the room. My eyes were glued to the television as Challenger soared in the sky, carrying the first teacher to space, a New Hampshire resident. What a proud moment.
As Challenger continued to soar into the sky, it grew smaller and smaller on the television. Then I heard the commander’s voice, “Roger, go at throttle up.” A close-up camera view of the space shuttle filled the television screen. Thanks to this modern technology, it was the first time I saw a close-up of the space shuttle far up in the sky. Then all of a sudden, a huge orange fireball enveloped the space shuttle.
“Flight controllers here are looking very carefully at the situation. Obviously a major malfunction.”
NASA
At first, I had no idea what was happening. Was this the way it was supposed to work? Through the eyes of an eleven-year-old, it just didn’t seem right. I looked at the teachers, and they both had a shocked look on their faces. They knew something went wrong. I looked back at the television screen and saw scattered pieces of debris falling to the ocean. I wasn’t sure what to think or how to react. The commentators on the television were stunned, trying to explain to the viewers what had happened.
The reality is – at one minute and thirteen seconds after lift-off, Space Shuttle Challenger exploded miles over the Atlantic Ocean. Commentators on TV were speculating many theories. They thought a self-contained box should have flown back down with the astronauts safely inside, but that wasn’t the case. I was hoping that all the astronauts would survive this.
We sat there for the rest of the afternoon, watching the news coverage of this horrific tragedy. As word got around to the other teachers in the school, more students came and sat with us. About forty-five minutes after the explosion, the high school principal announced over the P.A. about the tragedy.
The more I kept listening to the commentators, the more I felt that the astronauts were dead. WMUR also had local coverage. They replayed footage at Concord High School, where Christa had worked, of the cheers of their students’ applause in the auditorium, some throwing confetti in the air. Then, two minutes later, silence – absolute silence – as they stared at the television. I remember the video footage of a Concord Police cruiser parked in front of the McAuliffe’s home and the footage of students leaving Concord High School early.
After school, I rode the bus home, still stunned and confused. I sat in the living room and watched the news on the television for the rest of the afternoon until my parents came home from work. We talked about it, trying to make sense of this tragedy. Later that evening, my family watched a re-broadcast footage from earlier that afternoon of President Ronald Reagan giving a touching speech, honoring the astronauts’ lives.
“We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for the journey and waved goodbye and ‘slipped the surly bonds of Earth’ to ‘touch the face of God.”
President Ronald Reagan
Three days later, the entire sixth-grade class gathered in one of the larger classrooms, and we watched the memorial service for the seven astronauts at Johnson Space Center live on TV. I was still trying to comprehend everything that had happened, as I am sure many kids were then. It was my first experience witnessing a national tragedy, and it hit very close to home.
“Reach for the stars.”
Christa McAuliffe