Resident Uncovers Challenger Home Video

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Resident Uncovers Challenger Home Video

Written by Cory Twibell: ctwibell@antonnews.com Friday, 13 April 2012 00:00

Bob Karman captured tragedy on vacation in Florida

On Jan. 28, 1986, Hicksville resident Bob Karman and his family were waiting at the Orlando International Airport following a Disney World Vacation when they were treated to a rare event: witnessing a space shuttle launch 45 miles away from nearby Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla.

Seventy-three seconds after takeoff, the space shuttle Challenger broke apart, killing all seven crew members on board, and Karman’s camcorder, like many others that day, captured the tragedy in its entirety.

A screenshot of Karman’s video displays the view from the Orlando International Airport just prior to the space shuttle Challenger breaking up. Photo courtesy New Scientist “I had never been to Florida or seen a space shuttle go off. You are waiting for the stages to separate, something to happen, but something just wasn’t right. Obviously at the time we didn’t know exactly what had happened. It wasn’t until we got on the plane that the captain made an announcement on the flight that we knew,” said Karman.

Earlier this year, near the anniversary of the Challenger, Karman, 58, a retired nurse, intended to convert his old home movies from VHS to digital in order to watch them on the computer. His daughter, Kimberly, audience development marketing manager for New Scientist magazine, was working in London when the publication released her father's video on a blog post.

“My daughter was 3 years old [in the video]. She asked me where she was, and it’s ironic that I was going through the videos at that time,” said Karman, who uploaded the video to Vimeo.com before sending it to his daughter.

“Within 12 hours of it being on the Internet, it had gotten more than 5,000 hits. My daughter gave it to the video director and they put it on the New Scientist website.” Karman explained. The video eventually reached 1.1 million views in addition to approximately 70,000 views based on copies uploaded to Youtube.

Karman’s video now preserves the memory of the seven astronauts onboard the Challenger, but also pays tribute his wife Betsy, who died in 2000.

“My wife passed away and she happens to be in the video. It starts off with my daughter and then pans to my wife. I figured it was great way to immortalize her on the Internet, and it turned out that it did. I asked New Scientist to include that in the beginning and they accommodated me,” said Karman, a busy man following the viral video.

Fox News had contacted Karman the day after NBC’s Nightly News with Brian Williams ran a feature on the story.

“I said, ‘I’m too tired, why don’t you call my daughter?’” Karman paused, adding, “The only problem is she’s in London.”

Karman said within 20 minutes, Fox had a limousine waiting for his daughter outside her office.

“They wanted to figure out how seeing this event when she was young influenced her life later on, if she entered the science field, did she do well in school," said Karman, whose daughter entered the science field and was the salutatorian at Hicksville High School (2001). She also studied as an undergrad at Cornell and attended graduate classes at Harvard.

After turning down some initial requests from the media, Karman later gave in and appeared on CNN News to discuss his video.

“This was a big deal with Christa McAuliffe, the teacher, going into space. It was quite a media hype prior to the launch,” said Karman.

The amateur videographer said he’s found copies of his home movie appearing online in Russian and Spanish.

As far as the rest of his collection is concerned, Karman alluded to some of the more commonly captured home movie material.

“I’m going to put together an hour segment for America’s Funniest Home Videos, that’s what the next thing would be. I’ve got some crazy stuff, that’s for sure,” Karman said.

Visit http://bcove.me/0ojcyijk to view Karman’s video.

News

Hicksville Native Wins FIT Award

Thursday, 23 May 2013 00:00

Hicksville native Jae Lee recently rose to the top of his senior class at New York Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT), winning the Critic Award for sportswear. But fashion wasn’t the path that Lee originally chose.

In high school, Lee excelled in art classes and thought that he wanted to go to college and major in fine arts. However, he said, it was while watching an episode of “Project Runway” that he had a revelation. “All of a sudden I was thinking that it was something I could/should do and that’s what kind of led to it,” he said. He made up his mind that he was going to apply to fashion school and enlisted the help of one of his art teachers in school to help him. “We really scrambled and put together this presentation in about two weeks, where other people, I’m sure, worked on theirs for months,” he said. Lee said that when he went to present his portfolio, he didn’t think the meeting went well at all. “Everyone was really well prepared,” he said. But, he admitted, it must have gone better than he thought, because he was accepted to FIT.

WWII Armor Museum Opens

Thursday, 23 May 2013 00:00

In the face of cancelled air shows and the downgrading of NYC’s Fleet Week, Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano announced on May 9, that American soldiers will be forever honored on Long Island through the creation of the Museum of American Armor to be built at Old Bethpage Village Restoration thanks, in part, to a million dollar gift from Lawrence Kadish.

“We are watching powerful tributes to our American military reduced or eliminated across the nation and its just plain wrong,” stated County Executive Mangano. “Fortunately, the Memorial Day weekend air show at Jones Beach will be held regardless of the loss of the Thunderbirds, but Fleet Week in New York City will be greatly diminished and across the country air shows are being cancelled weekly. Nassau County is moving in another direction. An armor museum that honors every American soldier will be created on county property this year which will not only pay tribute to those who have defended our nation but will also strengthen the county’s tourism and destination industry and provide a new source of revenue.”

Sports

For The Love Of Tennis

Thursday, 23 May 2013 00:00

Hicksville residents honored by tennis association

The U.S. Tennis Association Long Island Region has recognized several Hicksville residents for their tennis playing or volunteering achievements. The group was honored at the USTA Long Island Region’s 23rd Annual Awards Dinner, which recognizes superior efforts both on and off the tennis court.

Terry Fontana received the Vitas Gerulaitis for the Love of Tennis award. She has been a longtime fixture in the Hicksville tennis community and is the driving force behind the Hicksville Community Tennis Association (CTA), which, since 1995, has been promoting the development of tennis as a means of healthy recreation and physical fitness and to create a community resource for physical activity throughout the area.

Lady Comets Honor Departing Seniors

Thursday, 23 May 2013 00:00

It was a cold season for softball this year, colder than usual. Anyone who knows the sport recognizes that the weather can be changeable, but this softball season was fraught with snow, pouring rain, cancelled games, frigid temperatures, and blowing winds that would cause any team to crave the warmth of indoors.

That wasn’t the case with the Hicksville High School Lady Comets Varsity Softball team. They played through it all like champions, and endured the rough weather like superstars.