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53 seconds to close the valve. That’s what I must be remembering. From an other incident.

Yes, you have the correct time. I was in my 2nd year at American University. I had already had my 9 am Tuesday/Thursday class, and after grabbing a bite, went back to my apartment and heard the launch live on WTOP, the all- news station in DC. And I turned it off probably seconds before the explosion.

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I was in 2nd grade and I’ll never forget the build up to the launch here in America. We spent a week in Science class discussing the mission, reading weekly readers about it, and even watching a vhs video about the shuttle. We learned the biography of each astronaut because this mission was being heavily promoted to children my age. A civilian teacher, Christa McAuliffe had been selected as a way to encourage an interest in science for my generation.

On the day of the launch we all were dismissed to the library to watch it on a TV that was sitting on a rolling cart. It was so unseasonably cold that day in the US Southeast that our library was freezing and uncomfortable. I can remember shivering even though I was wearing my jacket.

We watched the countdown and launch, but when the tradgedy occurred, nobody in the room grasped what had just happened. Then the announcer said something to the effect of ‘Oh my God, something has gone terribly wrong!’.

That prompted a teacher to run to the TV but she could not figure out how to turn it off so she tried to block it with her body and told us all to turn around and go back to our classrooms.

Towards the end of the day, our Principal spoke over the intercom and told us that the Challenger was considered lost and all astronauts were presumed dead. He told us that it was a National tragedy and explained what that meant. He also told us that it was like the Kennedy assassination that he experienced when he was our age. He told us to pray for the Astronaut’s families and to watch the Presidential Address that evening.

Soon after, we spent our science class writing notes and cards to the families of the astronauts, many of us were trying to hold back our own tears while we wrote these notes and drew pictures on the cards. We were not allowed to draw coffins, dead bodies, or skeletal remains and if we drew a flag it had to be upright and waving.

Edit: To this very day, I avoid all articles and documentaries about the Challenger.

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I think that is the wrong nickname :p

Totally agree the cost is unacceptable, but there is literally no other option for punting people to the moon currently.

Investment into making other platforms human rated and capable of lunar injection may have been more cost effective, maybe not.

In my opinion its amazing how well everything went, and it does show competence in everyone involved.

I had been teaching a class at Johnson Space Center the week before. The students said they could get me a gallery pass for Mission Control. I turned it down because I wanted to go home and I would have had to stay in Houston over the weekend. Had I not gone home I would have been in Mission Control when it happened. Actually I am glad I was not there.

Good stuff. Thanks for the info!

Somewhere in the Trappist system because I need to know about that one.

This post seems like a sincere question, as long as OP is open to learning from those who have done the work to gain this understanding I don’t see the benefit in discouraging them.

Maybe I’m not accurate with what I’m remembering but I’d like to know where I am wrong?

Also by the heat death of the universe I just mean where everything decays.

It was at 11:39 est. according to Wikipedia. I remember being in school with class well in session in Colorado when it happened. School wouldn't have started by 7:39. It happening a little before 10am mountain time makes a lot more sense. That said, the fact I can remember this so clearly today goes to show how shocking it was.

I would go re-read up on those theories, mate.

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I think the big bounce also works with the heat death of the universe theory. Everything will die out, and after possibly an infinite amount of time an event can occur which ultimately causes another Big Bang.

I was 4 and didn't really understand what was going on except for that the cool space plane went bang. It sounds stupid but I grew up watching sci-fi, so a blown up space ship didn't really faze me. Took a couple of years to truly understand

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Hello u/launderslaunders, your submission "Theory of the universe" has been removed from r/space because:

• Such questions should be asked in the "All space questions" thread stickied at the top of the sub.

Please read the rules in the sidebar and check r/space for duplicate submissions before posting. If you have any questions about this removal please message the r/space moderators. Thank you.

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I remember it so clearly. I was almost 9 years old and saw it on tv in the news with my family in Europe. It took forever to calm and comfort my brother, who was 5 at the time. It was one of the biggest (international) shocks of my childhood that I can remember.

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