| poeTV | Submit | Login   |

Reddit Digg Stumble Facebook

Help keep poeTV running


And please consider not blocking ads here. They help pay for the server. Pennies at a time. Literally.

Comment count is 62
Lurchi - 2010-01-28

It was a snow day, so I saw it at home.


baleen - 2010-01-28


My 4th grade class saw it live while sitting Indian style in a big conference room.
I had no idea what was happening as it was on TV, and this kind of thing happened on GI Joe all the time. All the astronauts would simply parachute out just as the explosion happened and be fine.


spikestoyiu - 2010-01-28

All classes stopped and gathered to watch it together, so it actually ruined every class, not just science.


RockBolt - 2010-01-28

One of the contrails streaking back to earth contained the crew module, it was especially reinforced but with no way of escape, and remained intact with the crew inside and alive, and for a while at least conscious, until it hit the ocean


Rape Van Winkle - 2010-01-29

source?


James Woods - 2010-01-29

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts107/030715crewmodule/

Jesus.


mouser - 2010-01-28

Major Malfunction is quite an understatement. I remember watching this live.


Hooper_X - 2010-01-28

Watching it now and knowing what's going to happen, the sense of dread is really remarkable.


pineapplejuicer - 2010-01-28

seriously. ugh.


Stopheles - 2010-01-28

And it took them over a decade and a half to change the camera angle from which the launches were filmed - I remember seeing one on the TV over the counter at a diner in my neighborhood a few years back, and not being able to stop cringing.


I was in 6th grade. This fucked us all up for the rest of the year.


ztc - 2010-01-28

In school the next day everyone made pictures of the explosion in art class. A lot of kids drew bodies flying out of the wreckage. These were pinned up all over the walls for months.


Caminante Nocturno - 2010-01-28

There is no way in Hell I could stay that calm.


Camonk - 2010-01-28

This ruined my sister's birthday, too.


megaspy2000 - 2010-01-28

you're from san antonio and your sister shares my birthday. weird


erratic - 2010-01-28

Here's a sad story: This clip was used in a Channel One recap of the 80's segment. Various 80's history events were montaged to Guns n' Roses "Sweet child of mine" and as the guitar solo started, so did this challenger clip. The video and music were timed so that right as the solo kicks into overdrive, the challenger exploded. so, 5 evil stars right there


Caminante Nocturno - 2010-02-01

The only time Channel One ever justified its existence was when they showed a Pepsi commercial with a woman dressed in a maid outfit.


chumbucket - 2010-01-28

Tom knew exactly when to stop talking.

I also was home for a snow day so I got a more personal grim reality that being an astronaut isn't all moon rocks and glory


Syd Midnight - 2010-01-28

I was home with a sore throat, listening on the radio, I ran out and turned on the TV in time to see Christy McAuliffe's parents staring at the sky slowly realizing what had happened.


wtf japan - 2010-01-28

I'm sorry. I know this is terrible, but I can't help it: I love it when something demands extensive media coverage and then goes horribly wrong. The fact that so many schoolchildren were forced to watch this live makes it my all time favorite disaster.


Old_Zircon - 2013-01-28

I's not much of a stretch to say it was more educational then the entire rest of 2nd grade combined.


infinite zest - 2010-01-28

I was about 2 years old but I remember this vividly.


glasseye - 2010-02-01

I was seven and I don't remember it at all.


The Mothership - 2010-01-28

Yup, still hard to watch.


TeenerTot - 2010-01-28

I was in a line of kids heading out to gym class. I was making fun of the PE teacher behind her back, and when she reeled around and demanded to know what was so funny, another teacher came running out of a nearby classroom, saying "Challenger blew up! It just blew up!"
Saved my ass.


oogaBooga - 2010-01-28

God works in mysterious ways. It's like christmas shoes.


Rudy - 2010-01-28

I was in study hall. When a teacher solemnly relayed the news to us, one of the kids jumped out of his seat and screamed "Yes!" He was sent to the principals office and eventually to therapy.


dead_cat - 2010-01-28

He now works in television.


phalsebob - 2010-01-28

D:


The Townleybomb - 2010-01-28

I was just kind of shocked that this wasn't on here already.


Wonko the Sane - 2010-01-28

First time in recorded history that youtube annotations were used for good, instead of evil.


dead_cat - 2010-01-28

The thing I remember best about this is is one of the school-age kids walking up to me while I was playing with blocks with another kid and asking if we knew the shuttle had exploded, and I thought it was going to be a joke.


1394 - 2010-01-28

I was at home and watching this with my mams on an early release day. She dragged the TV in the kitchen and we watched it in there.


Desidiosus - 2010-01-28

I remember being at my dad's place when this happened.

Not all that long before that, my mom had told me she remembered exactly where she was and what she was doing when Kennedy got shot. I had a hard time believing her.


John Holmes Motherfucker - 2010-09-24

When Kennedy was shot, I was five years old and home from Kindergarten. It was the year that I was living at my Grandparent's house. I was sitting on the floor putting together a little paper figure from a punch-out book. It was the big ass-shoe that the little old lady who lived in a shoe lived in.

Your mother speaks the truth.


megaspy2000 - 2010-01-28

this happened on my first birthday


James Woods - 2010-02-03

I was two. If I was aware of this, I probably thought it was awesome.


charmlessman - 2010-01-28

Someone from another class poked their head into my 5th grade classroom and told us. My teacher borrowed this girl's headphones and listened to the radio. When she confirmed the Shuttle blew up, my friend, Andrew went, "AWWWWW" in that smartass kid way. My teacher lost her shit on him. "I WAS GOING TO BE ON THAT SHUTTLE!!!!!"


Frank Rizzo - 2010-01-28

a million stars for the description.


cognitivedissonance - 2010-01-28

I was PM Kindergarten, and this was in the morning, so when I got to school none of us in our class could figure out why all the space shuttle posters had been taken down and we ended up watching "The Adventures of Mr. Toad and Ichabod Crane" instead.

What always amazed me was that the teacher had literally NOTHING ELSE planned, and all the materials were basically just the xeroxed shit from NASA.


memedumpster - 2010-01-28

They were going to raise baby chickens on board and our homework assignment was to watch the news and keep track of their progress. When it blew up, the girl sitting next to me leaned over and said "Well, at least we don't have any homework." Then, the teacher cried.


Xenocide - 2010-01-28

I was in kindergarten. We were having class like usual, when suddenly a garbled voice over the intercom said something about space shuttles and that we were all going to pray for the astronauts. I had no idea what was going on but I prayed along with everyone else (private Christian school, etc.) then we were told we were being let out early. It all happened so quickly, the adults were so frantic, and the intercom was STILL horribly garbled, leading to most of the kids being totally confused about what was happening.

Once my mom arrived to pick me up she asked if I'd heard about the teacher they were sending into space (I had) and it all clicked into place. "It blew up, didn't it?" I said.

One of my earliest concrete memories, in fact.


glasseye - 2010-02-01

So, kindergarten in 1986 makes you a couple of years younger than me. MW2 came out when I was in high school... what gives?


glasseye - 2010-02-01

Early high school, for that matter.


glasseye - 2010-02-01

apparently I have you confused with repomancer because I'm drunk. whee.


Toenails - 2010-01-28

I didn't know about it until I got home from school and found my mom crying in front of the television. Naturally, I thought it was because of some shenanigan I got into that day (flipping random kids off at the playground, sassing my teachers with newly discovered cuss words I learned during lunch), so imagine my relief when I found out it was because of the shuttle disaster and not something I personally did.

Wasn't this around the same time Mr. Hooper died? My memory is fuzzy, but I'm pretty sure I was wondering if he was in on the Challenger that day.


Ursa_minor - 2010-01-28

My dad worked on this particular spacecraft. It was the only time I've seen him cry.


dr_mr_vandertramps - 2010-01-28

Holy shit, I was in first grade. They had us all watching it in the centre. Wow.


garcet71283 - 2010-01-28

Need Another Seven Astronauts!


sosage - 2010-01-28

I'm five starring, yet I can't watch this (just like I can't rewatch 9/11 or the SF 89 earthquake footage). All I can add is that I was in third grade and it was my first mind blowing/national/depressing disaster.


longwinded - 2010-01-28

jesus christ

i also watched this live


RomancingTrain - 2010-01-28

I don't remember this, I was a fetus.


shipe - 2010-01-28

To this day I associate Challenger with the pink bathmat we had at the time, because I spent so long in the bathroom bawling my eyes out.


nemeses9 - 2010-01-28

I was like, one when this happened. I feel so young...

Thanks guys!


Aubrey McFate - 2010-02-01

Same here!


KillerGazebo - 2010-01-29

A few days ago my prof attributed this incident to NASA screwing up with some very basic data analysis. I have no idea how much of that is true, but he showed us this clip as a way of saying "DON'T FUCK UP YOUR STATS"

It was bizarre.


Rape Van Winkle - 2010-01-29

The level of grief caused by the challenger disaster has always seemed out of proportion to me.

Five stars for realizing almost everyone on poeTV is my age, give or take a year.


Hooper_X - 2010-01-29

It is an interesting little demographic study, seeing who replies to something like this. I'd imagine there are younger users who don't remember it, and probably older ones for whom it wasn't quite as severe a moment.

All I know is that within a week, there were Challenger jokes on the playground. Did you know Christa McAuliffe had dandruff?


Old_Zircon - 2013-01-28

Yeah, a week tops.

Q: where was Christa McAuliffe buried?
A: all over.

Kids suck.


Broose182 - 2010-01-30

Five for all the stories you guys wrote. I had not been born yet so obviously my non-existent mind could not comprehend the tragedy.


dododge - 2010-02-01

I was in my high school Business Computer Programming (i.e. COBOL) class. I didn't see it happen live but the word got out fast and a TV was put in front of the classroom right away.


Xero - 2010-05-03

My stars also go to the description.


BorrowedSolution - 2013-12-30

I wasn't alive for this one, either. Nothing notably tragic happened in the world until 9/11, and I was outside with a good friend all day. By the time we heard what happened and made it to a TV most of the videos weren't being aired anymore.


Register or login To Post a Comment







Video content copyright the respective clip/station owners please see hosting site for more information.
Privacy Statement