Dying Man Shares Previously Unseen Amateur Video of Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster
Video cameras were not the ubiquitous devices in 1986 that they are today, so the only video footage of the Space Shuttle Challenger most of us have seen are the live network broadcasts captured by the lenses of CBS and CNN.
Optometrist Dr. Jack Moss, however, was playing with his new Betamax camcorder that chilly January morning, and recorded the sad event from his front yard in Winter Haven, Florida, about 70 miles southwest of Cape Canaveral.
Moss had never shared the tape with the media or NASA, but 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.
“That’s trouble of some kind, George,” says Moss, as the shuttle’s single smoke plume suddenly expands and then splits into a Y-shape. As Moss and other onlookers spend several moments contemplating if something had gone wrong, a neighbor checks the news inside his house, only to return and confirm “It exploded!”
(via Louiville Courier Journal)
Comment by FaisalNahian on 1 February 2010:
wow amazing video.
Comment by Ryan on 1 February 2010:
Nice post!
Comment by hungry_traveler on 1 February 2010:
Gut wrenching.
Comment by Rob on 2 February 2010:
That trouble or not…They're not having trouble are they..That's trouble some kind George…That's trouble some kind or not….Hey they….They got trouble…That's trouble some kind George…That's trouble some kind…That didn't look right
Comment by Morton Thiokol on 2 February 2010:
I was listening to an AM radio news station at the moment of the disaster, which broke in with a feed from ABC radio a few seconds after the main fuel tank exploded. A few minutes earlier at the time of the 11:30 news segment it had been announced that they were "minutes away from blastoff" in Florida, so when they broke in with an announcer from Florida I assumed it would be a routine description, but it was anything but that. This tragedy could have been prevented had the executives not overruled engineers that very morning who voted "no go" on the launch due to the cold weather and previous problems with the O-rings.
Comment by george on 2 February 2010:
your point?
Comment by John on 2 February 2010:
And the sad thing is the engineers who voted for "No go" were all fired, whereas the executives were later quietly let back into their respective companies as if nothing had ever happened.
Comment by shaydothan on 2 February 2010:
lool haha well done lenny lol
Comment by WayneMcKz on 2 February 2010:
They were not fired! The environment at Morton Thiokol was toxic for them, however.
Comment by Michael on 2 February 2010:
I was carpooling with some school friends that morning. We stopped to pick up a friend, the only guy I knew who had a satellite dish. He was late as usual, so we watched Challenger's ascent on his TV, but it was a feed off a channel that had no reporter commentary. As it unfolded, we were wondering if the plume seemed unusual, so we scrambled to find a regular newscast, difficult because we had no idea where the "regular channels" were. Eventually, we scanned to a regular broadcast channel and our worst fears were confirmed, over and over of course. The intensely sad mood of just about everyone I knew lingered for many months thereafter. Thanks to Dr. Moss for such an interesting document of that historical moment. Yes, truly amazing.
Comment by Ben on 2 February 2010:
I like how even with the video right there, and the fact that the camera operator said approximately the same thing 20 different ways, the author of this article -still- managed to misquote him.
Comment by Volter on 2 February 2010:
This video is hosted terribly. I waited for the whole thing to buffer, and it still stops while playing to buffer the video. Anyone know of a download link? I would love to see the whole video without it constantly stopping.
Comment by Ed P. on 2 February 2010:
I was at the Naval Nuclear school in Orlando, and we were changing classrooms that day. I was holding a stack of books and turned to watch it got up and saw that exact image, maybe a little smaller. When I got done I went to eat at the mess hall and it was all over the TVs there.
Comment by Jake646 on 2 February 2010:
I remember the DJ of the radio station I was listening to broke in and said that the Space Shuttle Voyager had exploded and I was thinking "I hope he means the space probe Voyager not the shuttle." When I arrived at a friends house a few minutes later I learned the unfortunate truth.
Pingback by Dying Man Shares Previously Unseen Amateur Video of Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster « Fillingim.com on 2 February 2010:
[...] Dying Man Shares Previously Unseen Amateur Video of Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster via nycaviation.com [...]
Comment by Daevid Vincent on 2 February 2010:
Uhm, why did he wait TWENTY FOUR YEARS to release this!??
Comment by anon on 2 February 2010:
i suggest listening to it muted. the audio detracts from the experience.
Comment by guest on 2 February 2010:
I remember when right out of high school I was working in an RV shop, in a city in northern Utah which was in close proximity to where Morton Thiokol built the shuttle boosters in the 80's. This was a few years after the Challenger explosion. As the kid on the crew I got all of the grunt work including the day that some guy who was some sort of executive at Thiokol brought in his very high end top of the line RV (bus) in for repairs.
One day he came in to check on the progress of his unit, while I was under the unit working on some undesirable problem that the new guy always gets, and he and the boss were joking around about how after "he blew up the shuttle" he still managed to land on his feet by allowing himself to be "fired" yet getting brought right back in, under the radar, as "consultant" at the same pay.
Yeah they had a great laugh and I was so disgusted that I almost threw up. This was over 20 years ago, yet I still remember the disgust as if it were yesterday.
Comment by LC808 on 2 February 2010:
I was in elementary school in Hawaii at time…our teacher let us watch most shuttle launches, but the whole school paused to watch this in our classrooms as we were very proud of Ellison Onizuka who was from Hawaii. This tragedy still saddens me to this day…Though the new camera angle is interesting.
Comment by Rich on 2 February 2010:
Disagree completely. The experience is not seeing a lit candle go out, but to see how those who were there at the time were affected by it. We the audience know what to expect and wait for it to happen, but you can lose yourself in the moment, hearing moss come to the realization and surprise that something horrible happened.
Pingback by Vídeo inédito del desastre del Challenger on 2 February 2010:
[...] Vídeo inédito del desastre del Challenger nycaviation.com/2010/01/31/previously-unseen-amateur-video-o… por monti hace 4 segundos [...]
Comment by Lonny Eachus on 2 February 2010:
And even though specifically ordered to by the President at the time, 23+ years later, NASA still hasn't solved its bureaucratic SNAFUs, requiring yet another President to step in and try to make silk purses.
Comment by Anonmymous on 2 February 2010:
Thanks to Mr. Moss for the footage, a historical moment indeed!
Pingback by Vídeo inédito del desastre del Challenger | El Noticiero on 2 February 2010:
[...] » noticia original [...]
Comment by Banaczech on 2 February 2010:
My family and I took a trip from Edmonton Alberta, Canada to Florida for that launch only to see it turn horrible. One of the worst memories from my childhood. It's sad to see again, but wonderful that Mr Moss though of it before it was lost forever.
Pingback by Challenger Disaster Video-First release since incident - Grasscity.com Forums on 2 February 2010:
[...] Disaster Video-First release since incident Challenger Disaster Video – Space Shuttle Challenger Explosion | NYCAviation.com | Planespotting and… [...]
Comment by Deb on 3 February 2010:
This day will never leave me. I was standing in a hospital as my six year niece lay there dying from encephalitis. I looked up at the Television dazed and confused as I noticed all the doctors and nurses were shocked with disbelief. My family to this day never realized what happened that moment when so many precious lives where taken. We only could think of our little Stella<3
Pingback by Vídeo inédito del desastre del Challenger on 2 February 2010:
[...] Vídeo inédito del desastre del Challenger nycaviation.com/2010/01/31/previously-unseen-amateur-video-o… por sofista hace pocos segundos [...]
Comment by Rich on 3 February 2010:
It's being slashdotted — wait a day.
Comment by Steve on 3 February 2010:
On the contrary, it is his commentary that, mundane as it is, makes for such an interesting and important piece of footage. It just goes to show that even by 1986 people took space exploration for granted, and it was Moss' way of epxressing his surprise.
Pingback by Vídeo inédito del desastre del Challenger on 2 February 2010:
[...] Vídeo inédito del desastre del Challenger nycaviation.com/2010/01/31/previously-unseen-amateur-video-o… por bilbo1983 hace pocos segundos [...]
Pingback by Challenger Disaster Video – Space Shuttle Challenger Explosion | NYCAviation.com | Planespotting and Aviation Photography, Breaking Airline News, Aviation Discussion « Dawns Divine Designs and Writings, "A Business and Spiritual Site" on 2 February 2010:
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Comment by goofydg1 on 3 February 2010:
sad
Comment by Jahm Mitt on 3 February 2010:
Yeah well it is sad, but shit happens.
No one lives forever.
I'd rather die doing it than sitting around wishing I had.
Comment by steve on 3 February 2010:
Seems like so long ago… We were at the local mall with my older brother. I think it was a snow day because we were not in school, but we should had been. I was in young astranauts club, etc so I wanted to see the launch and I remembering running down to the TV store and watching it on a big 32 inch console unit. I was so excited, we had Christa McAuliffe come to the school previously and talk about the mission. it was a big deal… and I remember seeing the rockets go off in different directions and realize that it didn't look right. I had been listening to the broadcasted dialong and remeber the "Go at throttle up" but didn't know why it split. Seconds later the nasa broadcaster said "Obviously a major malfunction." I think it was at that point I realized what happened and just became numb. Rest of day is blurred, but that momment will always be burned in and remembered.
Comment by Joel on 3 February 2010:
Oops meant to say costume not customer, sorry.
Pingback by Greenhoof » Blog Archive » Only amateur video of Challenger disaster surfaces 24 years later on 3 February 2010:
[...] YouTube, via NYC Aviation [...]
Comment by Yommes Shoes on 3 February 2010:
Youtubers will envy this, because Youtube was not invented in that time yet.
Comment by Joel on 3 February 2010:
My son was going to be in play about astronauts in kindergarten when this happen. He had a customer and they built a cardboard spaceship.
Pingback by Challenger Disaster Video – Space Shuttle Challenger Explosion … | Tailspin on 3 February 2010:
[...] the original post: Challenger Disaster Video – Space Shuttle Challenger Explosion … Aviation [...]
Comment by Gobo on 5 February 2010:
I watched here on Youtube because it would not load up for me here- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41jq_5ltkno
Comment by Fried Toast on 6 February 2010:
If you're using Firefox, install Download Helper, then you can DL the file as an .flv and then change that to whatever file format you want later.
Pingback by Dying Man Shares Unseen Challenger Video | JetLib News on 6 February 2010:
[...] writes “An amateur video of the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger explosion has been made public for the first time. The Florida man who filmed it from his front yard on his [...]
Pingback by The Unwanted Blog » Blog Archive » Previously unseen Challenger explosion video on 7 February 2010:
[...] released is a home movie taken some 70 miles from the launch site. Optometrist Dr. Jack Moss, however, was playing with his new Betamax camcorder that chilly January [...]
Pingback by Previously Unseen Amateur Video of Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster at Traction Control on 7 February 2010:
[...] From NYCAviation.com: [...]
Pingback by Chilling, even after all these years… « Old Gray Cat In Exile on 8 February 2010:
[...] on that one… Chilling, even after all these years… February 8, 2010 This video of the Challenger explosion was recently brought to light. The info can be found on the link. It [...]
Comment by Jon z on 13 February 2010:
quoting the article: “That looks like trouble,” says Moss, as the shuttle’s single smoke plume suddenly expands and then splits into a Y-shape.
He didn't say that, it's just a small quibble… but why would you change this man's authentic and unique dialect for your news article?
Comment by Anonmymous on 8 March 2010:
He probably didn't think about how significant it was until he was going through his possessions to figure out who his things would go to when he died.
Comment by UK Airport Person on 17 April 2010:
Amazing video. Very sad though.
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