On the morning of Jan. 28, 1986--as many current UW-Madison students watched on TV in their grade-school classrooms--the space shuttle Challenger exploded in the sky shortly after liftoff from Cape Canaveral. The next day, and for years afterward, the images of the tragedy remained indelibly marked in the memories of those who witnessed it. The following excerpt was part of The Daily Cardinal's coverage the following day:
\The dry, emotionless voice of the mission commentator is heard at about 10:37 a.m. Tuesday morning as the Challenger stands gleaming on launchpad 39B. A faultless blue sky is in the background.
Mission Control: ""...we have main engine start ... and liftoff. Liftoff of the 25th space shuttle mission. And it has cleared the tower.""
Pilot Mike Smith: ""Roll program.""
Mission Control: ""Roger, roll, Challenger.""
Smith: ""Roll program confirmed. Challenger now heading down range...""
The ship's image begins to shimmer and distort as the television camera follows its ascent. Then the voice of Mission Control: ""Challenger, go at throttle up.""
Smith: ""Roger, go at throttle up.""
Then the sound of a brilliant explosion, a terrible fireball that disintegrates the Challenger. And the sight of two slender booster rockets twisting crazily into the heavens, belching twin trails of spent fuel that meet at the suspended cloud marking the place where moments before seven Americans had ridden out the grueling forces of acceleration.
Mission Control: ""We're at a minute, 15 seconds, velocity 2900 feet per second ... [long pause] ... Flight controllers are looking very carefully at the situation. Obviously a major malfunction. We have no downlink communications.""
The man reading the mundane transmissions of information linking the ship to the ground was the last to realize what happened. Schoolchildren from Christa McAuliffe's high school in Concord, N.H., massed in an auditorium at the school kept ... cheering until a voice shouted, ""Damn it! There's a major malfunction. Shut up so we can hear.""
So ended NASA's 56th piloted space mission in what by all accounts was a tragedy unmatched in the program's history. ...
Tuesday's horror was especially poignant because of the presence of McAuliffe, the 37-year-old hero ... to many.
Millions shared the pain of the families and friends of the crew by watching, again and again, replays of the explosion.
Rescue forces had waited nearly an hour as shattered pieces of the shuttle rained down into the Atlantic Ocean about 18 miles from Cape Canaveral. But the force of the explosion left little doubt as to the possibility of survivors.""
