R.J.
Absolutely.
Although I mostly remember the Challenger explosion.
That was the last time any of my schools did school wide assemblies of live launches.
From a historical perspective, I wonder if that sparked the death of the space program. Without kids screaming for it, their parents trying to fulfill that, long work weeks, imaginary heros instead of real ones... I could be reading too much into it. I don't know enough snout it to have an informed opinion. But I wonder if the space program died in the 84/85 school year, when kids quit watching.