A couple photos from my past...
I was working @ JSC when the Challenger blew up. I was the (then) Video Tech for George S. W. Abbey, the Director of NASA, in Houston. I was in the lobby of BLDG. 1 when the news hit the monitor. You could have heard a pin drop!
It was surreal...
This was the response from the global public:
@m15t3r_dr4g0n I’ve always wondered, was the realization of how bad it was hit instantaneously or did it take a bit to sink in? I know sometimes the mind tries to find any sliver of hope in situations like that.
For the Engineers, it was always a possibility. They never thought it was likely, though, since so much went into every mission. This time, though, part of the work was done by private contractors and caused an O-ring issue that was catastrophic.
The most horrifying part of it, however, was that the capsule, built to break free in an accident, did. They were all live & sending telemetry until they hit the ocean at 200mph.
After the second shuttle broke apart over Texas and 5 other States, I left NASA for good.