Did you watch the 1986 explosion of the space shuttle Challenger in your classroom?

I didn't, but the explosion played ceaselessly on TV. We were supposed to march in a parade the following day, an unusually cold morning for Miami (low 40s, I think). To honor the dead, we didn't play our instruments.

Reagan's speech -- his delivery and Peggy Noonan's script -- is, I gotta admit, his finest hour. He read it beautifully.

I don't think we watched it in class, but I saw it on the news after school. I don't think we watched much of anything on a television in that grade. I think I first heard about it from another kid (who was crying iirc).

I was in second grade and for whatever reason, only third graders and above were allowed to watch the launch that day. I remember all the older kids talking about it. I had heard of Christa McAullife though, and the news made me sad. I don't think I was traumatized, but I remember all few months later reading a Time magazine article about it that made the whole thing sink in a little deeper.

I was walking down the corridor in my high school, and one of the teachers ran out of the classroom and yelled about the explosion.

Now, did I watch the OJ verdict in class? Yes indeed

lol, yes, definitely saw the OJ verdict in class. I was 2 when the challenger explosion happened so I'm pretty sure I missed it, but I believe my older sister has claimed to have seen it live.

No. Was in trigonometry class, senior year of high school. An announcement was made, but can't remember if we went right back to the lesson or if we were allowed to sit and think about it.

Didnt watch it in class, but did see it live on CNN in the UCI student center

No, I distinctly remember another teacher or someone from the school coming in and telling our teacher that it happened and then she told us. Pretty certain I didn't see anything until the news that evening.

Already a working adult, so no, but we sometimes watched stuff at work, but I don't think this was one of the things.

Kid at lunch told me that the spaceship with the teacher blew up. I had a vague awareness that the launch was supposed to happen sometime soon after reading about it in The Weekly Reader.

We go to recess, come back to class and my teacher wheels in the TV cart. Uh-oh.

We watch it explode over and over again. My friend even gets the timing down to when the captain said "throttle up," he point his finger gun at the screen and blast it away.

So Yes I definitely watched it live in class.

Space shuttle launches were old hat by that time - I think that one was the 25th. The teacher on board caused a little extra interest, but I doubt it was enough that most classes would have had the TV on. Maybe more likely in the lower grades.

I grew up in Rocket City (go Trash Pandas) but seeing it live may be a false memory. It would however make 100% sense for us to have been watching in real time given my hometown’s close relationship to the space program.

it was a big deal. i wasn't in kindergarten yet and i remember hearing all about it. the tv in the classroom broadcasting it wasn't a universal situation but common enough to make it apocryphal. i remember hearing a ton about it and i don't think i was in kindergarten yet. were there any good challenger jokes? if anyone knows any i hope you'll share.

Why do people drink Sprite at NASA?

Because they can’t get seven up.

No. I was 32 at the time. I was aware of the disaster, but compared to all the previous disasters I'd lived to see this one was well down the list in terms of emotional impact or historic importance.

My class did. However, I was at a dentist appointment when it happened.

The crew was scheduled to deploy a commercial communications satellite and study Halley's Comet while they were in orbit, in addition to taking schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe into space under the Teacher in Space Project. The latter task resulted in a higher-than-usual media interest in and coverage of the mission...

To promote the Teacher in Space program with McAuliffe as a crewmember, NASA had arranged for many students in the US to view the launch live at school with their teachers.[51][52]

We absolutely watched it. There was a school assembly the day after to talk about the explosion.

I didn't see it, that was my junior year in high school and my recollection is that it happened during mid-terms. It was a weird week where you only had to be in school if you had a test. I think I was taking a test at the time that it happened, and then I came out and saw some friends in the cafeteria and they were like "The space shuttle blew up." I don't even know how they knew, I guess word probably spread from staff to students. I do remember watching the first space shuttle landing in 1981, I was in 6th grade and for that one they got out the TV and had us all in the gym to watch it. So the Challenger explosion was really shocking, because the space shuttle era to that point had felt like this logical next step toward all of us eventually moving to outer space or something. I think the Challenger really kind of put an end to that period.

I do remember going home and watching lots of replays of it on TV while people started to analyze what had happened.

I was too young by a few years so no, but I definitely have a false memory of this. Maybe they brought a TV in for a different shuttle launch...but why would they chance it just a few years after the Challenger?

Reagan's speech -- his delivery and Peggy Noonan's script -- is, I gotta admit, his finest hour. He read it beautifully.

Thought it was Safire? Agreed, his best moment.

Not directly in class, but definitely in school. My opening paragraph to this short piece of mine five years back says more.

it does feel like a small breaking point, where what for me had been a seemingly unending string of remarkable happiness about space exploration (born two years after the Moon landing, the only 'sad' thing that had happened in my lifetime was the end of Skylab) immediately ran into something vast and grim.

Yes, exactly Ned. I was a space fan, I had absorbed the history of the moon landing and everything that led up to it. I'd been to the Air & Space Museum multiple times, there was this real 20th century narrative of the conquest of the air and the moon and then the stars ...

In retrospect obviously our space program was always going to be mostly about military and commercial uses, but that wasn't clear to me then, and the Challenger really felt like the end of some promise.

The space program is about so much more than purely military and commercial uses. For one example, GPS has essentially become a public good. Yes you still have to buy a widget of some kind to leverage it but the access to sophisticated position/navigation/timing technology is now so widespread it’s basically like radio and television. It’s incredible. People forget the commonplace. But the space program has completely changed the way so many people live, in peacetime, for relatively cheap.

The disappointing thing about all of this was that just a few days prior to the Challenger explosion, Voyager 2 flew by Uranus - the first time any spacecraft flew by that extremely weird planet. I got to hang out at JPL during the fly-by and it was a particularly heady and optimistic time for a couple of days.

no but I watched Punky Brewster watch it live in her classroom so technically YES

Comparison's going to seem weird but that way you describe it, Elvis, almost reminds me of those three days between when Blackstar was released and when Bowie died.

But the space program has completely changed the way so many people live, in peacetime, for relatively cheap.

And the awesome telescopes with their amazing pictures. I guess I should say it was always going to devolve to military and commercial uses, SpaceX etc.

We have so much incredibly important shit up there that NOT creating the Space Force to defend it would be the weirder move. As far as militarization of space goes. It’s never pleasant. But once other countries started shooting their own target-practice satellites out of orbit just to prove they could, things got strange.

I didn’t watch it live but I was in the little newspaper office next to the classroom of the paper’s faculty supervisor, along with two of my best friends on staff. There were a couple of desks and a door to our darkroom. We always hung out there because we could bring our music in to play (probably Psychocandy or REM) and use the phone within reason. 4th period had started and my friend Nancy called her mom on other business. Nancy’s mom picked up and told us what just happened. Our journalism teacher then wheeled out a big TV so we could watch the news together. All the teachers were excited that one of their own was going into space, because it was a big deal, and were visibly devastated that day.

i def watched it in class, but not live, it was the 10th anniversary.
6th grade hr teacher had each of us report about one of our heroes in the run up to this, offering 3 cryptic clues as to one of her own heroes who we had to guess, the first of which was “anniversary”
by the 3rd clue it was obviously mcauliffe

No, somehow through my entire schooling in Portugal from 1991 to 2002 it was never shown.

We did get to see a tape in science class once that had a song that went "my body's my buddy, it's plain to see/if I'm good to him, he's good to me".

never watched live TV in a classroom through my entire school years (1984-1995) - we watched plenty of videos though.

Thought it was Safire? Agreed, his best moment.

It's Noonan. Safire was incapable of those lyrical rhetorical flights.

I was 15 and in my first year of high school. We did *not* watch it live, but definitely heard about it immediately. (Via announcement? How was it worded? I don't remember).

We were encouraged to process by writing about our reactions. As a school newspaper editor I prepared a spread of these solemn reflections. I recall subtly highlighting a quote from a girl I liked. In hindsight, my journalistic ethics were already suspect, and part of why my subsequent newspaper career was not a distinguished one.

I was trying last night to remember other moments where the teacher wheeled the TV cart into the classroom so we could watch breaking news events. Only other one I could remember (from between 1979-1992) was when Reagan got shot.

I think my school only had one TV (honestly) so they dragged everyone into the library to watch it... Group trauma

I remember as a grade schooler taking notes on Oliver North's Congressional testimony on Iran Contra for some reason, like I was worried no one else was paying attention or something

100% watched it live - I was in elementary school - and my capacity for denial was already in full effect, as I tried to reassure a classmate that you could see where their capsule was still intact or something.

Because they can’t get seven up.

― This Thrilling Saga is the Top Show on Netflix Right Now (President Keyes), Wednesday, December 3, 2025 3:47 AM (fourteen hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

many thanks for this

I remember the day after, I was in college and taking some class now forgotten, the prof came in and was like "OK, who's heard a joke already?" and talked abt humor as antidote for tragedy. unfortunately I can't recall any of the jokes aside from:

"Q) Where did Christa McAuliffe spend her vacation? A) All over Florida."

My teacher pulled john, evan and i into the class bc we were on recess and we were big space freaks and she thought it would be important for us to watch in real time

xp good one

I was trying last night to remember other moments where the teacher wheeled the TV cart into the classroom so we could watch breaking news events. Only other one I could remember (from between 1979-1992) was when Reagan got shot.

My teacher turned on a radio after it happened. I distinctly remember hearing the news guy emphasizing that Reagan walked into the hospital (he actually said “repeat: walked into the hospital). Which we now know was a propaganda lie.

Oh yeah, the Christa McAuliffe jokes, I remember those. Charitably they were a way of processing a shock. Less charitably kids are just dickheads.

https://www.discogs.com/master/132132-Feederz-Teachers-In-Space

I was trying last night to remember other moments where the teacher wheeled the TV cart into the classroom

I remember ONCE where we watched The Making of 'We Are the World' during P.E. on a horrifically rainy day

The Titanic submersible implosion seemed like a bit of a throwback to this kind of news event - all the students in my classes were keeping up with the live updates as the story was unfolding.

obviously 9/11 was a big deal on TV

never heard of it

guess I just mean that forty years ago, there were three broadcast networks in the U.S., CNN was barely a thing and so there wasn't a big diversity of expression, we all basically saw the same shit from the same perspective

Sure but it's still a shared experience--I remember seeing The Reagan shooting from all sorts of perspectives. The Challenger was different b/c there was basically only one feed

That Reagan speech is really something; I had never heard it before. Good job Peggy Noonan.

xpost What different perspectives did you see the Reagan shooting through?

I voted for the third option, because I do have a memory of watching it live but I was 7 at the time and don't trust it.

Weirdly the next time I can remember something like this was the principal announcing the OJ Simpson verdict over my high school PA, which is almost too 90s to be real.

xpost People's private reactions are one thing (see all the Challenger jokes) but were there people on tv saying that Reagan deserved to get shot or something?

oh also Trunp getting shot too

xpost People's private reactions are one thing (see all the Challenger jokes) but were there people on tv saying that Reagan deserved to get shot or something?

I am talking visual perspective, perhaps you are talking about some other kind of perspective

Because they can’t get seven up.

Heard this joke in Scotland too at the time.

... remember this was before the internet!

Another one I remember: The McAuliffes have their pet duties assigned; the husband feeds the dog and Christa feeds the fishes.

I did not see the explosion live, though I am sure I saw it that night on the news, maybe even before that, I recall talking to my mother about it as I walked up the driveway when I got home from school (though I am guessing that might not be correct because in my memory it was spring time and Jan 28 in MN there was definitely snow on the ground).

I was just about to turn ten, in the 5th grade and I do vividly remember being notified of the explosion via a P.A. announcement during class. I believe we had watched a taped interview with McAuliffe and the astronauts in the lunch room the week before, so we were well aware that she was a teacher going into space, plus the whole space shuttle program had a total lock on us, each launch was a big deal, so this had even greater significance.

balloon boy never forget

i think the reason why jokes about this are irresistible is because the whole thing is objectively very funny if for any reason your faith in the sanctity of the u.s. space program isn't full and complete. the greater the supposed sacredness and importance of the topic, the funnier the jokes. see: fly on in for subtember 11th.

kids may be dickheads but they're also good at sussing out topics of inflated importance.

or deflated in this case.

balloon boy never forget

I had forgotten, but thanks for this reminder

Yeah but we kids of the '80s also joked about Natalie Wood's death (What kind of wood doesn't float?) which wasn't sacred or important, so I think mainly kids are dickheads

The disappointing thing about all of this was that just a few days prior to the Challenger explosion, Voyager 2 flew by Uranus - the first time any spacecraft flew by that extremely weird planet. I got to hang out at JPL during the fly-by and it was a particularly heady and optimistic time for a couple of days.

I was in kindergarten, so no. however we were aware of it because my pop told us about it. was only 6, didn't quite have the concept of death down yet, just thought 'ship go boom'

balloon boy never forget

I had forgotten, but thanks for this reminder

― Andy the Grasshopper, Wednesday, December 3, 2025 3:18 PM bookmarkflaglink

i used to not be able to go to a metal show in Tampa without seeing Balloon Boy and his entire fuckin family (sans mother), but I believe they've since moved.

You all know what NASA stands for, right?

National Aeronautics Space Administration, you sick fucks.

You guys have covered most of the gallows humour but let’s not forget “What does NASA stand for? Need Another Seven Astronauts!”

LOL jinx

I don't recall it being a big deal in school, but I happened to not feel well that day and ended up hanging around my dad's shop where it was showing in the break room.

yep, I was on the west coast, so I remember the TV being on in the classroom when we walked in first thing in the morning and the countdown happening right away.

I was in the wrong country for this question but it is one of the more vividly remembered days of my childhood regardless. School was still out for summer and I was being driven to a baby-sitter, half-attentive to breakfast radio. Eventually we were all "wait, what did they just say happened?" We demanded the TV be turned on our destination and watched a somewhat repetitive satellite feed of the aftermath, which had probably not interrupted regular programming at all before things went awry. That bifurcated exhaust stream was such a spooky thing to behold.

See, my memory is that the school TVs that got wheeled about were only for watching something on a tape. Not a live broadcast, of anything.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynuDA8A42Ic

_The disappointing thing about all of this was that just a few days prior to the Challenger explosion, Voyager 2 flew by Uranus

I heard Uranus is big and gassy.

Also: Are there rings around Uranus?

I also recall it as something we saw after the fact, in fact it was the first day of year 9 for me so I was up earlier than I mightve been getting ready for school and it was all over the news.

The "need another seven astronauts" joke was all over the playground by lunchtime.

In the UK the first programme to break the news was Newsround, Children’s BBC’s news programme.

The time of the disaster was around 20 mins before the scheduled Newsround broadcast of 5pm GMT, so before 24hr/rolling news the programme’s late afternoon slot could potentially break huge stories of the day before the regular BBC/ITV/Channel 4 news programmes.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

was thinking about this thread

I also have very strong memories of the Jonestown Massacre in Guyana... I was pretty young but the imagery on the TV and in magazines was really horrific, a bit like seeing photos from nazi concentration camps

I remember hearing about Jonestown, but we didn’t really watch TV news in our house so I don’t remember seeing any images of it. Definitely the meme of the poisoned Kool-Aid spread very quickly through my elementary school.

Yes.

I have more intense memories of watching the evening news (unsure which network), where the anchor had a model space shuttle (with accompanying separate boosters) and used it to explain to America, over and over and over again, what probably happened and why.

I would’ve been… 9?

i was only 4 during Jonestown but I would leaf through Newsweek when it came in the mail and my parents had to hide from me the issue about Jonestown with pictures of dead bodies.

No. I was 19. I was taking a lot of drugs and when I drank I would drink way too much and I had blacked out on some multi-substance combo and been out for I don't know how long, and when I came to, my head was very foggy for more than a week -- I have no idea how long I was out, I think at least a couple of days -- and I got it in my head that if I could just figure out how long it had been since the Challenger exploded, my whole timeline would become clear. I would ask people: when did the Challenger explode? and they would say "that was last month" but actually this did not help.

That is my Challenger story.

Yes, 8th grade science lab.

The first time I heard about Jonestown was a 60 Minutes piece in the late-70s or early-80s probably. It raised questions. Despite being in an extremely weird homegrown evangelical church, my parents were like, "oh, that was a cult."

My mom and I were watching the exploitative Guyana: Cult of the Damned movie on the UHF channel one night.

All the names in it are changed: James Johnson leads his followers to "Johnsontown," etc. I thought it was funny because one of my teachers had the same name.

"Well in real life, his name was Jim Jones," Mom said.

And I was all ... "Did you say..."

no idea when i first heard about jonestown but it was certainly well after it happened (when i was seven)

I also have very strong memories of the Jonestown Massacre in Guyana... I was pretty young but the imagery on the TV and in magazines was really horrific, a bit like seeing photos from nazi concentration camps

We didn't have a TV when I was growing up, but my mom was painting one of the rooms in our house and had spread newspapers on the floor and was kind of glancing at them as she worked and suddenly she screamed "Holy shit!" and that was how she and I learned about Jonestown.

I have a vague, possibly false memory of watching the Challenger explosion in school. I definitely remember "Need Another Seven Astronauts" probably the next day.

By summer camp the jokes had started to circulate.

The Challenger did indeed explode in my classroom

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From a UK perspective, the Challenger disaster was the only major news item broken by John Craven's Newsround (a news show aimed at children), because the timing was such that it happened just before the programme was broadcast. The disaster happened at 16:39 UTC, which would have been exactly right for 1980s CBBC scheduling.

According to Wikipedia that particular issue of Newsround wasn't presented by Craven, so whatever memory I have of John Craven telling me about the disaster must have been from later on. If the disaster had happened a few hours earlier it might have been broken by Pages from Ceefax, in which case my enduring memory of the disaster would be of BBC Micro character graphics of shuttle debris soundtracked with smooth jazz-rock:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7dkKoPRTKo

It's faintly bizarre seeing news reports about Chernobyl on what resembles the internet except that it's actually from 1986. Oh, in fact it actually has the TV schedules for that day - 01 May 1986 - and Newsround was broadcast at 16:55, sandwiched between Ulysses 31 and Blue Peter. So it started just sixteen minutes after the shuttle disintegrated. There's a short clip of it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tb0G8Q5Oz_k