It's one of those moments that immediately get stamped into your mind.  I know exactly where I was when the Challenger exploded.  I was sitting in Jill Milton's Spanish class at Daviess County High School.  I was 14-years-old and a sophomore in high school.  My classmates and I were in shock.  We knew a little about the space program, but it was the media coverage of Christa McAuliffe, a teacher who won a seat on board that mission, that really exposed us to NASA and what it was all about. And the tragedy that claimed her life that day and the lives of the astronauts on board is what many of us carry thirty years later.

I have seen the footage of that explosion many times through the years.  But the one question I always had was this . . . what went through the minds of the folks who were actually there . . . watching it live from below instead of at home or at school on television?  And it wasn't until I stumbled across the video below on YouTube that it was explained.

See, at home and at school, we knew exactly what happened because newscasters were giving us the information as they were getting it from mission control and scientists on the ground.  The spectators at the event didn't have that luxury.  They feared the worst, sure, but they grasped onto a small sliver of hope that their eyes had just deceived them.  The scene in the stands was, well, confusion.

Among the people in the crowd . . . Christa McAuliffe's parents, who, like the rest of us, tried to convince themselves it wasn't real.

It's so hard to believe that 30 years have already passed.  But the Challenger explosion is one of the most defining moments in recent history.  It instantly captivated and rallied the American people.  And it truly is one of those moments we'll never forget and can immediately flash back to that place and time and recall exactly where we were when it occurred.

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