04-12-2011, 06:12 PM
A quick, interesting story for you regarding the Challenger explosion from January of 1986:
I was working as a radio disc jockey in Oslo, Norway (I served in the U.S. Air Force). It must have been later in the afternoon/evening in Europe, and I was the only one in the radio station. Just a 19-year old kid. The phone rings and I answer. On the other end, "This is the US Ambassador here in Oslo, can you confirm that the space shuttle has exploded?"
I didn't even know it yet. I wasn't monitoring our live feeds from AFRTS in Los Angeles. I asked him to hang on and checked in on the radio news feeds and sure enough, gave him the confirmation he was seeking.
In a related note, 3 months later Chernobyl (sp?) blew up, and a radioactive cloud moved north east and enveloped all of Scandinavia.
I was working as a radio disc jockey in Oslo, Norway (I served in the U.S. Air Force). It must have been later in the afternoon/evening in Europe, and I was the only one in the radio station. Just a 19-year old kid. The phone rings and I answer. On the other end, "This is the US Ambassador here in Oslo, can you confirm that the space shuttle has exploded?"
I didn't even know it yet. I wasn't monitoring our live feeds from AFRTS in Los Angeles. I asked him to hang on and checked in on the radio news feeds and sure enough, gave him the confirmation he was seeking.
In a related note, 3 months later Chernobyl (sp?) blew up, and a radioactive cloud moved north east and enveloped all of Scandinavia.