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[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Dying Man Shares Previously Unseen Amateur Video of Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster

Here is a never before seen shot of the Challenger tragedy from a private citizen and offered to the publlc domain before he passed on.

"A week before he died this past December, he fished it out of his attic and handed it over to the Space Exploration Archive, a non-profit organization in Louisville, Kentucky. The Archive transferred the video to digital formats and released it to the public domain in time for the 24th anniversary of the disaster this past week."

nycaviation.com/2010/01/31/previously-unseen-amateur-video-of-space-shuttle-challenger-disaster/

[Paulie pchris00]

I just watched this for the first time. What an interesting perspective. I scrolled down and looked through some of the comments with the video, and one of them suggeted to turn the sound off, that it only detracted from the experience. I disagree. Those of us who are NASA enthusiasts seem to forget that not everybody shares our passion, but are still curious, and I think the people on this video probably represent the reaction of most of the nation that day, albeit they witnessed it first-hand, and not through news footage.

Another comment asked why this man waited 24 years to release it. My guess is that these were simple people, not seeking any publicity, and would have assumed that the news coverage of Challenger was sufficient. fast forward to 2003, when amateur footage of Columbia's break-up was on TV within minutes, before mission controllers even knew what had happened. It's hard to remember now that not everything was posted on youtube within minutes of an event.