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Originally Posted by Taltarzac725
Space Shuttle Challenger disaster - Wikipedia
I recall I was working at Information Access Company (IAC) in Belmont, CA when this happened and the Editors were busy creating indexing terms for the IAC products that covered national and international news.
This company sold various indexes to libraries across the United States.
My supervisor Bob Lee was in tears much of the day, unfortunately as were many of us.
I ran into a few of these IAC workers again in 1989 when I was attending the American Association of Law Libraries convention in Reno, Nevada having just graduated from the U of MN Law School and while working at their law library and indexing all the computer files on WESTLAW. WESTLAW was a product of West Publishng Company which is based in the Twin Cities of Minnesota.
Believe, that, unfortunately Bob Lee had passed by then. I do not believe many of my fellow IAC workers thought I would get through law school at the U of MN as one of my supervisors had also graduated from the U of MN Law School.
The best friend of my girlfriend/roommate in development in the Summer of 1989 worked for NASA as a computer programmer or something like that. I do not believe she was there in 1986 though.
Events like these and their anniversaries do bring back memories.
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Yes, I remember that day VERY well. Having worked with the crew that died, I watched the mishap from the parking lot of the VPF (Vertical Processing Facility), where the TDRS payload and Boeing IUS (Inertial Upper Stage) was sitting just days earlier.
I had "walked down" the payload with the crew looking for and noting any snag points/concerns/sharp edges that could tear space suits should an EVA (Extra Vehicular Activity) be required. I had sat for hours upon hours with Mission Specialist Ellison Onizuka wearing bunny suits during the ground testing of the payload.
All of us working at the Cape knew the mission as 51L, as that was the only identification we used back then for each mission. I was on a special team designed to deploy to any part of the world should the Shuttle be force to abort to an alternative landing site. Passports, visas, shots, and all entry requirements for different countries were in place to facilitate the quick response to an aborted mission at different points of ascent. Even the "pitch-around" abort, designed to mitigate a low ascent anomaly was an established abort sequence that would involve returning to the SLF (Shuttle Landing Facility) was part of the crew response.
It was THAT response that seemed apparent at the immediate onset of the mishap. Those with me in the parking lot of the VPF that day watched in complete unbelief that something like this was actually happening. They responded, "Pack your bags! You're headed out buddy!"
At least that was for about the first 45 seconds or so... the public speaker announcements went silent. The official OIS channel 212 commentary was sparse, and uncharacteristically somber as I walked the few steps inside the VPF OSB (operational support building) to listen. The response from my other team members was tragic unbelief. Tears, questions, and shreds of hope from possibilities that would not come. We had been going faster and faster with missions to a point that many called it "Mission-itis", and the launch on this day with the extreme weather represented the apex of that state.
The Cape was locked down. No personell to enter nor leave. Within the hour, I found myself dispatched to the LCC (Launch Control Center). An armed guard unsealed the door to the LCC and ushered me inside, as he then closed and re-locked the door, stationing himself again to prevent any entry from outside. I was instructed to remove any and all paperwork from the launch consoles, including trash cans, and sequester these items for subsequent investigation.
Nobody ever thought that a loss like that would ever ACTUALLY happen. Within 3 years, I moved to the unmanned Titan program with the Air Force instead of NASA; and that is where I eventually retired from nearly 3 years ago now. The 51L mission loss was an event that changed my life direction.