Scobie-Rogers, June
(Widow of the commandant) , speaking English:
- "The spaceship fell into thousands of pieces in front of us – just like our hearts."
Corrigan, Grace
(mother of Christa McAuliffe ) , speaking English:
- "The countdown and the start seemed to be going fine, but as soon as we saw the smoke, we knew something was wrong."
Boisjoly, Roger
(engineer when the challenger tragedy happened, 1986) , speaking English:
- "When the spaceship started and left the tower, I whispered to my colleague, that this time we got it off, we were lucky. One minute passed. He murmured an alleluia."
Scobie-Rogers, June
(Widow of the commandant) , speaking English:
- "Marvellous start. The crew’s dream came true. They were on their way. A team which was incredibly selected, representing all cultures, races and religions. We were watching it excited, when the spaceship lifted into the air."
Boisjoly, Roger
(engineer when the challenger tragedy happened, 1986) , speaking English:
- "The „Teacher in space” plan was President Reagan’s idea and of course this evening he gave a speech for the whole nation. These public speeches were very rare. NASA thought that he would mention them too, so they didn’t want to miss the speech."
Puttkamer, Jesco von
(NASA employees, 1986) , speaking German:
- "I remember immediately before the start when mixed emotions ruled the room. We were not sure whether we should delay ignition, but we couldn’t decide only based on feelings. I couldn’t break the countdown without supporting my statements with at least one logical piece of evidence."
Boisjoly, Roger
(engineer when the challenger tragedy happened, 1986) , speaking English:
- "We couldn’t prove that surely a tragedy would happen, but we had enough data to show that the risk was too high. It could be compared maybe, to a Russian roulette game played with a revolver.
As an engineer I could say, that instead of one bullet, we put six into the cartridge."
Boisjoly, Roger
(engineer when the challenger tragedy happened, 1986) , speaking English:
- "I wanted to withhold the start, because of the cold weather.
In the end of the day, I was responsible for the casings of the rocket."
Corrigan, Grace
(mother of Christa McAuliffe ) , speaking English:
- "Actually we never thought of the risk involved. We thought that NASA knew what they were doing."
Boisjoly, Roger
(engineer when the challenger tragedy happened, 1986) , speaking English:
- "I conducted the technical executions when it returned and I know since that time that the cold water can be a big issue.
"
Corrigan, Grace
(mother of Christa McAuliffe ) , speaking English:
- "Christa has been always an entrepreneur, and wanted to try the new, the unknown. She thought, that space could teach her a lot of new things. She would have loved if the children were enthusiastic about it as well. As a teacher she thought it was a big chance."
Puttkamer, Jesco von
(NASA employees, 1986) , speaking German:
- "After two dozen successful operations of the ship, people had the impression, that space travel was just child’s play…"
Scobie-Rogers, June
(Widow of the commandant) , speaking English:
- "The world saw that we lost some astronauts, but we lost more than that. Our husbands, wives, sons, daughters, fathers and mothers.
They were more than just astronauts."
Corrigan, Grace
(mother of Christa McAuliffe ) , speaking English:
- "There had to be a reason why she died like this. She did what she wanted."