20 years ago today...

[Rudyjohn]

They were all afraid of losing the gov't contracts!

 

[Bob]

I remember my wife and I stayed at the Langford Hotel in downtown Winter Park because the heat had failed in our home. It was extremely cold that night. I remember walking outside to view the bizarre vapor clouds left by the explosion. The sky was perfectly clear, and I was about 45 miles away.

 

[Allifunn]

Working as a bank teller - they let us alternate taking short breaks so we could watch the TV in the break room.

I was a bank teller too...we had a tv in the lobby..behinfd the teller line (back when banks close from 12:00 till 2:00) ...we watched it all day and the customers didn't mind at all!

 

[Allifunn]

Wow.

I was in high school in St. Pete. It was a small private school and we didn't have many TVs in the classroom at the time, but I remember hearing about it somehow -- maybe an announcement or something. The thing I remember most about that day, and I have thought of it many times, was a comment from a kid whose dad worked for Honeywell. He said something like, "think of all that money they lost." I yelled at him for being crass. I think that was the first time I ever yelled at someone other than my little brother.

he deserved it! wonder what he is doing now?? hopefully he has grown up!

 

[Allifunn]

I remember walking to a common room in our school where there was a huge screen TV. We watched historical events such as the Space Shuttle taking off, so this time was no different, until we watched it explode. I felt a little bit in a daze, not too dissimiliar from the way I felt after seeing the jets slam into the WTC. It was a gloomy day for me.

what is that new tar SJ?? cna't quite make it out

 

[Allifunn]

I remember walking to a common room in our school where there was a huge screen TV. We watched historical events such as the Space Shuttle taking off, so this time was no different, until we watched it explode. I felt a little bit in a daze, not too dissimiliar from the way I felt after seeing the jets slam into the WTC. It was a gloomy day for me.

OH...wait, it is a dog?? german sheppard??

 

[Allifunn]

I was in graduate school driving back to class after an off-campus meeting with about 3 other students. When we got to class, we were clueless about what had happened, but the class was discussing the event and told us about it. Classes, of course, did not continue as usual that day. I've been watching the CNN special about Christa, the teacher who was on the shuttle. Very moving portrait of her.

There's also a teaching video that reenacts the teleconference in which NASA and Morton Thiokol (the company that made the ORings that failed and caused the failure) discusses whether to launch or not because they weren't sure the Orings would hold up in cold weather (it had never been tested). It's interesting to watch the dynamics and the two engineers trying to influence the group to not fly the shuttle. Clearly, it didn't work. I use the video in a course on team dynamics (it is used to illustrate groupthink and authority dynamics). Roger Boisjoly is one of the engineers who tried to stop the launch.

where can one see this video?? sounds interesting!

 

[Paula]

where can one see this video?? sounds interesting!

Allifunn. I just pm'd you with some information. There were many videos made about the Challenger disaster and you can find some links online for information on them by googling "Challenger Disaster video" or "Challenger Disaster Groupthink Video".

Here's one video I found online that discusses the organizational problems that led to the disaster.

http://mitworld.mit.edu/video/171/