They announced it on my high school's PA system, during my second-period civics class. Following that class was our morning break; I went immediately to the cl

They announced it on my high school's PA system, during my second-period civics class. Following that class was our morning break; I went immediately to the classroom for my next class, physics. A number of people were there already, huddled around a boom box that was tuned to a news station reporting on the accident. I didn't actually see the footage until I got home from school that day. Always thereafter, when watching a Shuttle launch, I would be (at least figuratively) holding my breath between the "go at throttle up" call and SRB separation. Yet the gods do not give lightly of the power they have made, And with Challenger and seven, once again the price is paid, Though a nation watched them falling, yet a world could only cry, As they passed from us to glory, riding fire in the sky! - From "Fire in the Sky," written by Jordin Kare