29 years ago today, NASA Space Shuttle orbiter Challenger exploded just 73 seconds into its flight killing all seven crew members aboard.

My day started normally and I don't recall anything out of the ordinary that happened on the way to my 7th grade class. At 10:38 CST that morning, the Space Shuttle Challenger started liftoff. Just 73 seconds later, an O-ring failure caused a breach in the solid rocket booster joint it sealed, allowing pressurized burning gas from within the solid rocket motor to reach the external fuel tank causing an explosion and the eventual deaths of all seven crew members.

Space shuttle missions and their launches happened all of the time but this one was different because one of those crew members was a civilian. A teacher from New Hampshire named Christa McAuliffe. Educators across the country spoke and taught a little more about space exploration around this time because one of their own would soon be added to a list of heroic space explorers.

I still have an information kit that my mother purchased for me through school that features information on the flight, its mission and includes full color glossy 8x10s of the crew. This was a special day for my 7th grade class of New Hope Middle School as well.

Due to McAuliffe's presence on the mission, NASA arranged for many US public schools to view the launch live on NASA TV. As a result, many who were schoolchildren in the US in 1986 did in fact have the opportunity to view the launch live.

I honestly don't remember if we watched the launch in class but I do remember a call at some point that morning, coming across the school's intercom system, excusing us from the day's activities. We were headed home before lunch and I didn't really knowing why. Nonetheless, I headed to my grandmother's house where she greeted my younger brother and I. We bellied up to our TV trays in the living room for whatever snack she whipped up and cut the TV on. At that moment, I realized why we had been let out of school early. That was the first time I think I ever experienced shock. I could see and hear what was happening but couldn't quite wrap my head around it.

This disaster playing out over and over on my television screen was our reality. In one split second the lives of every crew member's family had changed. Our country had changed. Little did I know it, but I had changed.

There have been more space shuttle in-flight disasters since then. We've lived through many dates we'll always remember like 9-11 and for us in Tuscaloosa, 4-27. January 28, 1986 was the first of its kind for me. I think maybe I have looked at the world differently since that day.

The Space Shuttle Challenger disaster has always been in the back of my mind. Choosing random times to jump into my thought process and remind me of just how fragile life really is. A few years back I had the chance to visit Arlington National Cemetery and the monument erected in honor of the seven lives lost that cold day in January, 1986. I was with my son on a school field trip. Luckily our tour guide explained to the children why the monument exists because in my mind, I was instantly back on my grandmother's couch watching TV in disbelief.

On this day I, as I have on every January 28th, take time to pause and remember those seven astronauts we lost.

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