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Originally Posted by HailCorduroy  Very cool. Even listening to that song gives me chills. I remember back then when the shuttle was new and each launch was televised (on regular channels, not CNN) and the entire school stopped to watch. Hearing that song is like a time machine back to those days. I remember when the Challenger exploded, we were out of school that day for a snow day. Me, my mom and my neighbor were playing Monopoly and stopped to watch the launch. We just sat there in shock when it exploded. |
I was living in Orlando at that time, it was a COLD day, about 28F (for central FL that's COLD!
), I was working construction (electrician), and we had the day off because of the cold. So, I get up, figure "what the heck, got the day off, Shuttle launch is on, I'm driving to Titusville to watch!"
I was what...~10 miles away from the launch pad...I still cry a bit remembering that day. Had a pretty good crowd on the seawall of the Indian River, everyone was hooting and cheering...then...an "anomaly" as the NASA announcer called it...it got so quiet...we all knew that something horrible had happened, but couldn't let go of the hope that somehow the crew and orbiter were safe...I was looking through binoculars, hoping to see the orbiter in one piece...
...wow, I gotta stop.
...even weirder, the first launch AFTER that, I had changed jobs, was working for a 3M window tint shop, we had all of the contracts for NASA, and I was at the Admin building the day of return to flight. Everyone went out for the launch, watched on the lawn in front of the building. EVERYONE was in tears....
...brilliant song too...
