I think your not alone. For whatever reason, this disaster didnt touch the American psyche quite as hard.

I dnt remember what I was doing. Coyote hunting I think.
I remember where I was for the Challenger, High school science class. Very sad days both of them.
Watching NASA be tossed aside like an old used doll. Is the saddest & one of the most maddening things for me personally

It was a Saturday, IIRC - I had to work that day and was driving into Chicago listening on the radio. The local news radio station was broadcasting what they thought would be the landing and I just happened to have it on. I remember the first thing they said was that the shuttle was "overdue." Didn't sound good at the time, and kept getting worse and worse.

I remember both clearly.

Just in case anyone is interested, here is a link to the accident investigation report. Very interesting reading. I have read parts of it, and NASA had multiple opportunities to prevent the accident.
http://www.nasa.gov/columbia/home/CAIB_Vol1.html

Damn time flies.

Seems like just yesterday.

Here's a pic of the Space Shuttle Enterprise that just landed in Houston at the Johnson Space Center.

They are refurbishing it for public viewing.

When they get done it will be the only Shuttle that you can play around in the cockpit.

I was in 5th grade for Challenger, for Columbia was in class at the time it happened, found out about 3 hours after it happened. I was working on my BA degree.

My brother who lived in Titusville Fl, right down the road from Canaveral called me and woke me up. They were all freaking out because the shuttle was supposed to land and hadn't made it to Florida yet.

I was hungover as hell and sleeping on my couch after getting just blasted the night before.

I laid on the couch and watched CNN all day.

didnt the crew supposedly survive the blast and die when the hit earth?

That was Challenger.

I was finishing college as well and I don't remember this at all. Jeez.

Columbia- Was watching it live on FoxNews

Challenger - I was working at a construction company helping build a fire station and heard it on the radio

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almost as sad as the history of the chiefs franchise

Both stories were bad. Challenger was really bad, because it was the first time NASA had deaths since Apollo 1 (Grissom-White-Chaffee). Also, it blew up in such a spectacular manner, like a giant Bottle Rocket.

Columbia was bad because the crew was only 16 minutes from landing safely. They didn't know the ship had a fatal wound in the left wing. It was a hole that let hot gas into the body of the ship on re-entry. They were doomed when they decided to land.

Challenger -- I was in college and came back from class to my dorm room, flipped on the TV and it had just blown up. So I skipped the rest of my classes and watched the coverage.

Columbia -- Was out running Saturday errands with the wife and walked into Books-A-Million to browse. There was a TV on in the magazine section (on CNN, IIRC) and it was probably 10-20 minutes or so after they had lost contact. I kind of went numb, went over to the wife and told her we needed to go home.