The Pain Of Challenger Crash Still Here After 25 Years

The crash of the space shuttle Challenger  is one those moments you remember exactly where you were and what you were doing when you heard about the tragedy.

A quarter-century later, it still hard to get those images of the exploding space shuttle  out of  our minds.    The day was Jan. 28, 1986.    Seventy-three seconds after lift-off,  Challenger exploded and so did our illusions about our technology.

It was the world's first high-tech catastrophe to unfold on live TV. Adding to the anguish was the young audience: Schoolchildren everywhere tuned in that morning to watch the launch of the first schoolteacher and ordinary citizen bound for space, Christa McAuliffe.

She never made it.

McAuliffe and six others on board perished as the cameras rolled, victims of stiff O-ring seals and feeble bureaucratic decisions.

It was, as one grief and trauma expert recalls, "the beginning of the age when the whole world knew what happened as it happened."

By the way, Jan 28, 1986  was a cloudy Monday here in West Michigan.  I "stayed up" to watch the Challenger's lift-off.  ( I worked the overnight shift at WLHT-FM).  I thought it was some sort of 'firework" going off -- wishing the shuttle "good luck".