It’s time to take a moment and say a prayer of remembrance.
25 years ago today I was a reporter on the San Diego Union, sitting at a desk in the main office in Mission Valley in San Diego next to one of my favorite editors Steve Droessler (who is still there despite the paper having changed ownership). It was a big day because the Challenger was going to be launched with the first teacher in space. The TV was on live on CNN, just over my desk. Many of the busy editors and reporters stopped to watch the lift-off.
And then it happened. Stunned silence. And many of us worked that day on an unplanned story amid our intense personal grief. It’s a cliche to say, “it seems like only yesterday” but it seems like only yesterday in the same way that learning of the Kennedy assassination seems like only yesterday. We had all seen the live feed of the crew happily marching into the craft for the mission. These weren’t just names. We had bonded briefly with them and then they vanished.
Be sure to read Pat Edaburn’s take on this anniversary HERE.
Here is CNN uncut. live video of that day:
Nasa is marking the anniversary.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.