January 28th, 1986 at 11:39 A.M.  The Space Shuttle Challenger exploded, 29 years ago today and only 74 seconds into it's flight, about 10 miles above the earth.

6 crew members and the first ordinary citizen in space. Teacher Christa McAuliffe was the citizen, many schools and school kids watched this historic and horrific event.

It was the first time that I realized that things happen differently in real life than they do in the movies. I saw the explosion.

In the movies, the man at Mission Control would have been in hysterics. As I'm watching it, I was baffled and confused by how calm the man sounded. My first thought was, maybe it's not as bad as it looks.

I, and the rest of the world, learned shortly thereafter what had happened. I will always remember the Mission Control man when I think about the event.

Do you remember where you were when this tragedy happened?

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