If you were watching TV on January 28th, 1986 then you saw it happen. Maybe you were in a classroom with tons of other kids like I was. Maybe you were at home. Maybe you only heard it on the radio. It happened right before our eyes. The entire country was already watching that day. Space exploration has always been something we hold dear. Each time it happens though, it feels like we pull away from it a little. It has happened before. It will happen again, but I don’t think anyone who saw it will ever forget. For me it was my first real lesson in death.
'I was in the first grade. We had all gathered in a classroom with the other first graders to watch it together. I was very excited. Teachers had always been some of my favorite people. They still are. I also wanted to be an astronaut. I had followed all the news footage with my mom and dad about the teacher who was on the flight. I remember being very excited for her and what a teacher being on the shuttle meant. We all watched in anticipation. I remember as the shuttle lifted off thinking how fun that must be. The shuttle lifts off and begins climbing. Then it happened. I can still remember the long silence as the reporter realizes what has just happened and is unable to speak. You hear his voice crack when he comes back on. I was absolutely devastated, probably more so than the other children.
In fact, watching it again tonight has effected me in quite the same way. That silence was my first lesson in death. EVERYONE was silent and still. It was like the whole world just stopped except for the image on the screen. The rockets flying haphazardly away from the explosion. It has been and always will be probably the most profound image I will ever see. After the shock the teachers in the room darted towards the TV to turn it off. I remember two of the teachers crying trying to turn in off and not being able to. One just stood in front of the TV looking out at us trying to reassure us, while the other one tried to get the TV turned off. ( I think they had been recording and did not want to stop the recording just the TV.) Finally they got it off and had a big talk with us. I don't remember the talk. Nothing they said could reassure me that life was going to be ok. At some point during all this I called my mom crying and upset. Would we still try to travel beyond our tiny blue planet? Would we ever make it beyond the planets and out into the stars? I think my dream of being an astronaut died that day.
Then I guess they decided to play the presidents speech that he made afterwards. I think they recorded it and played it back to us later after the talk they had with us. When he started talking I felt like he was with me. He reminded me then, and now, of a grandfather explaining a life lesson to a little girl who had no idea what had just happened. If I close my eyes I can almost see myself sitting on his lap and the speech he gives is a response to a sad little girl’s question: “Grandpa, what just happened, I don’t understand?” His eyes were sad so I knew he felt what I felt. He leans toward the camera slightly giving off a sense of comfort. I picked up on these things as a little girl and felt almost as if he were my own grandfather comforting me after what we had all seen. I know now it was his soft unwavering voice and his sad but strong eyes that portrayed this feeling.
He used his emotion in his voice, his body language and his eyes to try to comfort a nation. For a 6 year old little girl he succeeded. ' (Amber Robbins Com140 course)
For links to the videos you can go here for the Challenger Video and here for Reagan's Speech.
A final note… When he ends his speech I can’t help but think now how absolutely elegantly he ended it. I think that was probably one of the best speech endings I have ever heard in my entire life. Just a few simple simple Majestic lines.
“We will never forget them, or the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye; and slipped the surely bonds of Earth to touch the face of God.”
