30 years since Challenger: New voice at astronauts’ memorial

Front row from left are Ellison Onizuka, Christa McAuliffe, Gregory Jarvis, and Judith Resnik.

The US space agency marks the 30th anniversary Thursday of the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger with a pledge to remember lost astronauts as it presses on toward Mars. For the seven astronauts’ loved ones, the day remains fresh in their minds.

Tomorrow morning’s wreath-laying ceremony will be held at the Kennedy Space Center at 10 a.m.

Juan Cabalera, Minnesota State University Moorhead professor of physics and astronomy, was a 16-year-old at Lourdes High School in Rochester, Minn., when the Challenger disaster happened. In addition to her many students who followed her into the education field, McAuliffe’s children Scott and Caroline are both teachers now as well.

Kathie Scobee Fulgham, the daughter of Challenger commander Dick Scobee, will speak. All seven crew members died in the explosion, which was blamed on faulty o-rings in the shuttle’s booster rockets.

The Challenger explosion was arguably NASA’s most visible mishap, and one that altered the discussion of space travel.

“I know it is hard to understand, but sometimes painful things like this happen”, he said.

The center’s lead flight director, Stacey Shrewsbury, said she has seen youngsters who did missions at the center while in elementary school now studying science, technology, engineering or mathematics in college.

“We’ll also have a person from NASA Skyping in to talk to educators about the resources that NASA has available for them”, she said.

We didn’t have cable TV, but CNN had captured the event on live television; nonetheless, it was broadcast on many regular TV channels at the time because of McAuliffe.

Concord, a city of about 42,000, built and named a planetarium for McAuliffe, 37 when she died, then later changed it to the McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center, recognizing native son Alan Shepard, the first American in space. NASA’s Teacher In Space program was created in 1984 and McAuliffe applied immediately. It will be a rare appearance; the McAuliffes normally do not take part in these NASA memorials.

The Challenger crew takes a break during countdown training at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in this January 9, 1986 NASA file photograph.

Steven McAuliffe said he’s pleased “Christa’s goals have been largely accomplished in that she has inspired generations of classroom teachers and students”. Almost 4.5 million students have been taught at the now 40-plus Challenger Centers worldwide, according to reports.

McAuliffe’s backup, Barbara Morgan, a schoolteacher from Idaho who finally made it to orbit in 2007, poignantly shared memories of each member of the Challenger crew.