I was 6 years old and we were living in a small town in a western part of Russia - and I remember we were watching evening news on TV when they showed Challenger disaster. At those times we, Soviet kids, were keen on space exploration - lots of magazines, books, even tabletop games - and for me as a little kid watching such a tragedy was a deep impact. They've told about Christa McAuliffe being a teacher and that only worsened things for my heart 'cause you know when you are six or seven - a teacher is a figure like a parent... So yes - that's something I would definitely remember ((
Personally, I don't think about crews of Soyuz-1, Soyuz-11, Apollo-1, Challenger and Columbia as of Americans or Russians, but rather as of ambassadors of humankind into space.

Soyuz-11 was pretty sad. :(

This was a very touching tribute to the Challenger crew. Certainly, both the U.S and Russia have seen their share of heartbreaking disasters in the space program as we all collectively mourned their tragic loses. As kids in the U.S, we also were very much into space exploration. As we all learned, the more we wanted. Kids are very much like sponges in that we all " soaked " up everything around us.

I never realized that the disasters suffered by the U.S space program had such a profound effect around the world including the former Soviet Union. Then again, why wouldn't they. You're right, we are ambassadors of mankind in space. With the vast brain trust of not only the U.S and Russia but other scientific minded countries around the world, there is no telling how far we can push our boundaries of scientific knowledge and understanding as we advance into space.

Mikhail Gorbachev said some very kind words in the wake of the tragedy; despite the competition between the USA & USSR this was clearly recognized as a human tragedy, like all other space mishaps.

I don't remember the day of the disaster but I do remember the animations ABC News showed during the investigation - probably from around late 1986 - 1987. I was a toddler but it still made a big impact on me-the videos of this amazing machine, the smiling crew, and then that awful white explosion. I drew it often in the sketch pads my parents bought me when I was 4-5 years old.

Along with the "Herald of Free Enterprise" the Afghanistan/USSR conflict, and the Northwest Airlines disaster, the Challenger was the news event I remember the best from my preschool days.

I am hardly surprised that Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev would have expressed his sympathies as that's how he was / is. This is undoubtedly why former president Ronald Regan held Mikhail is such high regard not only as a head of state but also as a person. I'm sure Mikhail thought the same way as he and his wife Raisa visited the Reagan's at their ranch. I well remember Mikhail standing right beside England's Margaret Thatcher at Ronald Reagan's funeral.


If you were drawing this out on your sketch pads, then you were trying to make sense of this tragedy and dealing with your own grief. I'm sure from what you said that this was very traumatizing for you at such a young age and I'm deeply saddened that this tragedy was an introduction of sorts for you to the space program.