Challenger Disaster

Smoke plume left in the sky moments after the loss of Space Shuttle Challenger

On the morning of January 28, 1986, the United State Space Shuttle Challenger was scheduled to launch from Kennedy Space Center in central Florida.

At 11:38 a.m. EST the ship lifted from its launchpad with seven American astronauts, and 73 seconds later, Challenger was no more.

Below are the memories of REDdimension Wiki Circle members relating where they were when the shuttle exploded in the sky over the Atlantic Ocean just off Florida's east coast and how the national tragedy impacted their lives.

Kevin McNulty

Here's where Kev will undoubtedly put his fascinating and insightful experiences.

And here is where he'll tell his story in his own words

Jon Reddick

Jon was sixteen years old and attending Haines City High School, just ninety miles from Kennedy Space Center. It wasn't uncommon to watch the conn trail of a morning or afternoon launch in the sky to the northwest during school hours.

By the time of the Challenger, I had watched so many shuttle launches they almost seemed commonplace, so that morning I was at school and on my lunch break, but forgot about the launch and was just killing time hanging out with my friends in the band hall.

Shortly before noon some other kids who had been out on the loading dock of the band hall waiting to watch Challenger go up came running in very agitated yelling, "Hey, the space shuttle just blew up!"

I was sure they were kidding, but after a minute or two was convinced enough to go outside and see for myself. What I saw was striking. For better or for worse, I can say that while I didn't see the actual explosion, I witnessed that now infamous forked smoke pattern in the sky to the east caused by the solid rocket boosters tearing the shuttle apart. Not on TV, not on the news, but in person and with my own eyes.

As chance would have it, one of my very best friends had stayed home sick that day, and had been recording the launch live on television. After school I went to his house and we watched and re-watched the VHS of the explosion as it had happened earlier in the morning.