What Happened To The Bodies Of The Challenger Crew?

It was truly a sad day. I was the Chief military engineer for the Air Force Titan 34D launch vehicle at the time. I was standing out on the balcony of the Vertical Integration Building that faced the Shuttle pad about 3 miles away as the crow flies. We had a launch vehicle on Pad 40 at the time waiting to launch. I watched as the Shuttle went up and I realized the fate of the mission as soon as I saw the Shuttle solid motors separate prematurely. It was surreal. May they all rest in peace. 🙏

I was 10 when this happened. A whole generation of children were traumatized by this accident. We were all excited a school teacher was to going to space. And we all saw it live on TV! After all these years, it’s still a pivotal memory.

Here is a way to reduce the likely hood of these "accidents"......ALWAYS randomly select one NASA administrator son, daughter to fly on the space craft; in Wars, require ONE blood relative of ALL Senators and Representative or any Elected official to serve on the Front Line where LIVE combat is going on.

I was 14 years old, sitting in Mrs. Kennedy's 8th grade AP Algebra classroom watching with the rest of my classmates. It was dead silent after the initial Whoop whoop whoop cheering from the lift off… the silence was broken by a sickening gurgle which then erupting into a blood curdling scream from Mrs. Kennedy… She was so proud to have a connection to the first teacher in space, being a teacher herself… and one of the best I ever had, to be frank…. The moment that Challenger Exploded is something that has been imprinted on me and the surrealness of the event has only ever been matched two other times by the attack on the Alfred P. Murrah Building in OKC on 4/19/1995 and the WTC Twin Towers on 9/11 2001… all three events are permanently imprinted on me and I will never forget where I was on those days… I worked in Downtown OKC in the Liberty Tower when the Murrah building was destroyed… I watched the WTC attack live on the news that morning in 2001 while I was getting ready to go to work… but the event that affected me the most as always been the loss of the USS Challenger … I guess it was my age at the time, being 14 and impressionable… I was also extremely interested in Astronomy and space travel… at the time, I thought I wanted to one day be an astronaut myself… unfortunately, the Challenger explosion destroyed that aspiration and I took a different path in life… this video brought back a lot of memories and it made me wonder, what would my life had been like had the Challenger explosion never happened? Would I have pursued a career at NASA? I'll never know,,, RIP Challenger Crew… you are all heroes… may your memory live on and your sacrifice never be forgotten!

I drove all the way to Florida to watch and video record the launch. I was standing on Coco beach and could not believe my eyes when it exploded. Sad day I will never forget. I really could not understand why they launched, as it was down in the 40s.I was 31 and I even was very emotional as I witnessed this accident.

Still after all these years . I still feel the gut wrenching sadness of that terrible day ! RIP !

I moved into Greg Jarvis’s office some time after the Challenger explosion— we both worked for Hughes. He had left patches, negatives and photos behind. It was such a tragedy, he was so well loved by his coworkers.

A horrible preventable tragedy. The only saving order from mission control center would have been "scrub" before the 30 second count down. Admiration and respect to the memory of Space Shuttle Challenger crew.

I live right down the road in Palm Ba;y, and had just pulled my truck off the road to get a picture. I got my picture for sure, less than 10 seconds after the initial explosion. Every car on US 1 was stopped in the road listening to our radios in a state of shock. Good video, very informative, thank you..

You still make us proud as you continue reaching for the stars. RIP Crew of the Challenger.

My brother was an Air Force Major stationed at Vanderburg AFB monitoring the launch. He said two of the astronauts were alive until they hit the water as they were monitoring their vitals. He gave me their names but it was so many years ago I don’t remember who they were. Such a sad day. He was also going through the interview process for a shuttle science officer at the time and had met his future crew mates and had learned to fly the shuttle. Today he is retired and owns two aircraft of his own. When I reflect back I am kind of glad the military started pulling out of the space shuttle program because if my brother had been on one in the future he could have been in one the future shuttle tragedies.

When I worked in Civil Engineer, I worked with a guy, who worked on the Challenger booster rockets. He told me it was too cold for the launch of the Challenger causing the faulty O-ring in the right solid rocket booster seal to fail at ice-cold temperatures led to the destruction issues on the Space Shuttle. The NASA commissioner in charge of the shuttle project ignored it. Sadly, this happened R.I.P Christa McAuliffe 1948-1986, Dick Scobee 1939-1986, Ellison Onizuka 1946-1986, Judith Resnik 1949-1986, Ronald McNair 1950-1986, Michael J. Smith 1945-1986, Gregory Jarvis 1944-1986.

Very sad day. I watched the live telecast as she blew up. Still remember exactly where I was at that time. Not different from 9/11 2001. Both events left detailed permanent memory imprints on millions. Both events were vastly different, but similar in that they were so surreal.

I was 7 years old when Challenger was destroyed. I remember, like most people did on January 28, 1986, watching it live on TV. My sister was watching it with me & I will never forget this as long as I have my sane mind. My sister & I walked out of the house in pure shock! My mama, now dearly departed from us, said sarcastically, "What are you crying for?" We told her, the space shuttle blew up on live TV. She then changed her attitude was we had just watched something horrific. January 28th since 1986, has been a true day of sadness for me. God bless Dick Scobee, Michael Smith, Judith Resnik, Ronald McNair {WITH WHICH I CAN PROUDLY SAY I CELEBRATE A BIRTHDAY WITH}, Ellison Onizuka, Gregory Jarvis & Teacher In Space Christa McAuliffe! GONE, BUT NEVER FORGOTTEN!

I remember this like it was yesterday.

May their souls rest in eternal peace 🙏🏼

What a sad event. I was in the Navy, underway in the pacific when this happened. Unfortunately, the mentality that ultimately was responsible for this tragedy is still prevalent in our society today. I designed power lines for 6 different power companies, all of which ignored safety, to some extent, to save money. I had to walk away from the industry due to the level of incompetent decisions and lack of code compliance. Too many people are not being held accountable for their irresponsible decisions.

I was a junior in high school. We were all watching it live in combined classrooms because there was only so much AV equipment. We all just sat there staring, like 'what just happened?', 'was that supposed to happen??'. When we realized it after a few minutes, no one said anything, not even the class smartasses. Just hands over mouths and tears from many of us. Not a sound, for a full 5 minutes, which is a long time in a high school classroom crammed with 3 classes of kids. I still cry when I see it.

Very sad day. My brother was in the Air Force at the time of the Challenger blowing up he went into a bathroom stall and on toilet paper wrote the tribute for the Challenger. Then he actually transferred it to paper. I do believe the Shreveport Louisiana newspaper printed it. I do believe the tribute hangs in the Johnson space center to this day.

I never understood why they launched the Challenger on one of the coldest days of the year. Engineers warned them.