Most Memorable Mediated Experience: The Challenger Disaster, 1986

In 1986 cable television was a new thing for me. I hadn't had access to it before, so being able to watch the Challenger launch after so many failed attempts was thrilling. Although local channel TV news had carried stories about the US space shuttle program, I felt that CNN would be a better venue to watch such a momentous occasion.

This was also exciting to me as there would be a civilian on board this flight, a teacher: Christa McAuliffe. I figured if she could go into space maybe I could too someday. This was also the 25th space shuttle flight, so, again, an occasion to witness.

I got up early to watch the launch. I was alone, as my first husband had come home late from work and was sleeping in. I remember clicking the TV on with the remote and then changing the channel to CNN from MTV. They were just about to launch when I tuned in.

Everything looked great at first, then the disaster struck. I watched, not comprehending really, as what had been a United States space shuttle went 'poof' and comtrails went out in two directions. There was some commentary as to a 'major malfunction' on board the shuttle, but the full disaster did not begin to be reported until a bit later. I also remember seeing images of Christa McAuliffe's parents watching the launch proudly, and then being shown as they witnessed the disaster and began to comprehend that something really bad had happened. I guess it was about 10-15 minutes into things that I screamed and ran to wake up my then husband. "The space shuttle blew up!" I remember saying. "The space shuttle blew up!!" He did get up then, and we watched CNN for about another 2-3 hours as they covered the initial responses to the disaster. I cried a lot, he would sit there and grimace, sometimes changing the channel to see if any other news source had more information. At that time, I think CNN was the most informed source we had, so we stayed with it as much as possible. We watched President Reagan address the nation that night, offering his condolences and his usual uplifting rhetoric, also using CNN as the medium.

For weeks afterwards, every newspaper, every news magazine and every TV and radio news show had some story about the Challenger and its crew, about NASA and the search for what had happened. This was the first time I remember all other news taking a backseat to another story. For awhile I read or listened to or watched them all, trying to make sense of it for myself, then things seemed to start to repeat, and I tuned out, literally. If I turned on the news and there was a story about the shuttle disaster I would change the channel, looking for some new news story. In retrospect, I guess the saturation point had hit for me.

Today I can search on Google for images, recordings, videos and the suchlike about the Challenger disaster, and I have even embedded a few in this post. It doesn't change what happened, nor does it change how I experienced that moment in my life. It was CNN I turned to then, as a new medium for me, to help me fully experience and understand what happened, and it was CNN that shaped what I saw, understood and cried over as those 7 astronauts, including a teacher from New Hampshire, were mourned by a whole nation.