34 Years Ago The Challenger Exploded On Live TV

For myself and most of my generation this was the biggest national tragedy we had witnessed. I was in 6th grade and the other 6th grade teacher stuck his head into our classroom and said, “The Challenger just exploded.” Our teacher herded us to his room to watch the replays of the video as the media covered the explosion. Of course many of us had read and studied about Kristen McAuliffe, the first teacher in space! We even stayed in from recess to watch the coverage. I remember how quiet everyone was as we stared at the screen as history played out in front of us.