Watched it live with my golf instructor (PE class at SFA), showed up early to see it. Shook us both up and he sent me home for the morning.
Sad irony the other shuttle came apart over east Texas and showered parts over the area.

I was a junior in High School and was in art class.

Don't remember the class, but we were watching it live.

In college walking home from class.

Bidding a job with one of my employes in Fort Worth.

I was working on a job site in Valley Ranch and went to a 7-11 in the area. The clerk had a TV on behind the counter and several of us were standing in line watching the launch.

In the snack bar in my second year in college. Remember just being stunned...growing up on the east coast of Florida, launches were nothing new to me...but this was WAY different. Will always be one of those times that you remember exactly when and where you were when it happened. Only a few of those in my life...Challenger was the first. Also remember every second of the 9/11... gut wrenching...

Was sitting in college physics class when we got the news; teacher put the chalk down, then sat down - and we all sat there quietly & gut-wrenched for the rest of class - not a word from anyone.

Watched it live at work. For some reason, Texas Instruments (Lubbock) had a big screen TV in the employee cafeteria for the lift off.

Painful memories from both Challenger and Columbia tragedies. On a personal note I was at the STS-31 Discovery mission that launched Hubble. It was the first flight following Challenger. My children’s grandmother is an ivy league scholar. One of her books, The Challenger Launch Decision: Risky Technology, Culture, and Deviance at NASA (1996) was the inaugural winner of the Rachel Carson Prize and received nominations for the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize.

Blue Moon

I was at north island San Diego getting my knee looked at.

Everything stopped.

Senior in college - in chapel at the time - got back to my apartment afterwards and one of my roommates was watching and caught me up on the details.

I was working for an Aerospace engineering firm designing countermeasures for some of the military satellites that the shuttles were deploying while in space. Every conference room had a TV with employees huddled around watching each of the launches ... everyone was in total shock when it blew up following launch that day. Not much was said the remainder of that day at work.

I was skipping school and saw it live on tv. I was about 13

Coming out of the tool trailer working construction on the (back then) new Lovelace Hospital in Albuquerque. I only heard of it, didn't see it on TV, but remember the vision very well of a bright sunny day and somewhat warm.

At work in Plano. Co-worker told me what had just happened.

Was 40mi offshore fishing in the gulf....didn’t hear about it till we got back to dock the next day

I was eating a breakfast burrito in the cafeteria at Richland College and watched it live. One of those events where you remember exactly what you were doing