I saw Challenger blow up live on TV. They were running the NASA feed on one of our local UHF stations, and I even got it on videotape, since we'd just bought our first VCR and I was figuring out how to operate it. I never watched the tape (there were more than enough replays on the news anyway) and I think it may still be sitting on a shelf at my parents' house.
I'd had premonitions of disaster before the launch, for the reason that back then I was emotionally invested enough in the space program to have premonitions of disaster before every launch. I mentioned this later and made a lot of people go "whooooo", then explained to them about confirmation bias.
I was slightly perversely proud of the fact that when my classmates asked me the next day what I thought had happened, I guessed that an SRB had burned through and ignited the tank, at a time when the papers were still talking about SSME turbopump failure. My reasoning was just that I knew it had almost happened once or twice already.
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I'd had premonitions of disaster before the launch, for the reason that back then I was emotionally invested enough in the space program to have premonitions of disaster before every launch. I mentioned this later and made a lot of people go "whooooo", then explained to them about confirmation bias.
I was slightly perversely proud of the fact that when my classmates asked me the next day what I thought had happened, I guessed that an SRB had burned through and ignited the tank, at a time when the papers were still talking about SSME turbopump failure. My reasoning was just that I knew it had almost happened once or twice already.