Today is the Anniversary of the Challenger Blow-up

[howeird]

http://www.livejournal.com/users/wicked_wish/434755.html
has a well-written first person account, and several pages of "where I was" comments

Here's mine:

When I arrived at my Silicon Valley workplace, a now-deceased modem company, I was greeted at the door by the always-joking, always-smiling East Indian head of the repair lab, who said the shuttle had blown up. He was smiling. He seemed to be pulling my leg. But he insisted he was not. We went into the lab where the TV was on and everyone was watching the aftermath. We didn't get much work done that day. My little sister was devastated. She lived in Laconia, NH, about 25 miles from where Christa McAuliffe taught. After the Teacher-in-Space contest, *everyone* in NH knew her. My sister later worked for NASA, and was the launch social director for the FUSE project, an un-manned ultraviolet space telescope.