Big hole in my memory

[WiregrassBenGal]

Yes, the Challenger exploding on takeoff was a much more earthshattering event and part of it had to do with how they hyped a schoolteacher, Christa McAuliffe, blasting off in space. The Columbia disintegrating on re-entry, while also huge news happened sometime in the spring of 2002 or thereabouts. While also big, it took them about a half-hour to really decide on what happened and then they found bits of wreckage strewn over various parts of Texas over the next few days. Also, it happened at night without millions of poor schoolchildren to witness it in real time as happened with Challenger.