My experience as the Challenger disaster was similar to yours, OP: hype and excitement beforehand, celebrating Christa McAuliffe, school reports and anticipation for the launch which we couldn't actually see live... but the ashen faces first on the lunch monitor who passed word to our teacher, and then the update that something had gone horrifically wrong that day...

I was in 3rd grade. I remember the shock of disbelief, but also finally understanding the context of what "disasters" really meant (I'd heard of "Kennedy" and other space mishaps but didn't understand why folks still talked about "ancient history", until then). Then following closely as information trickled to light over months and years to determine what went wrong... the failures of parts and people. For anyone following along, it was a crash course in engineering and the real world beyond what textbooks and NASA outreach could teach.

With that said and lessons learned, to me the Columbia disaster was almost more tragic.

And yet. We are forever indebted to those sacrifices, and those lessons. Not just from the Shuttle program, but Apollo and Gemini and Soyuz before, and the ventures which will inevitably follow unto their own unexpected calamity. Inspiration and progress demands no less. I took my kids - too young as they were - to STS-135 in 2011 in the hopes the seed of fantastic inspiration would take root. As they get older, they'll come to understand that great achievements do not come easy.

Meanwhile, I never forgot. It all went through my mind as I restored my shuttle pin - my first one - over weeks. Every time I turn it on, I remember in tribute and thanks.

“Sometimes, when we reach for the stars, we fall short. But we must pick ourselves up again and press on despite the pain.” -Ronald Reagan