30 years since Challenger: Teacher-in-Space finalists gather

Teachers, faculty and some students at Concord High School took a moment to honor the life of former CHS teacher Christa McAuliffe, who lost her life in the Challenger space shuttle disaster 30 years ago today.

Among those killed was school teacher Christa McAuliffe, America’s first-ever civilian astronaut.

“But through the Challenger mission, McAuliffe’s classroom would be transported miles above earth and her students would be the millions of children around the world – children like me – who were captivated by the mystery and possibilities of space”.

The CEO of the Astronaut Memorial Foundation, Thad Altman, said space exploration fulfills a “divine mission of spreading the light of life through all of God’s creation”.

McAuliffe and other crew members died aboard the challenger, after an explosion, just over a minute into flight.

When the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster happened, for many of you, it was your first “shared experience”.

“It was a thrill to meet her and be connected to something that I had grown up obviously as a young person”. She represented Utah in the teacher competition. June Scobee’s husband of 26 years, Dick Scobee was the commander of the mission.

“Pretty quickly everyone realized it had, at last, actually really gone wrong”, Nordsieck said. It’s time, he said, that his children see and learn firsthand all about astronauts and the space program.

Garneau says that space travel will never be “100 per cent safe”, but important lessons were learned.

“It’s the challenge to reach beyond what people think they might be able to do, because she was reaching for her star”, he said.

Challenger Space Shuttle moments before take off.

The Space Shuttle Challenger launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida on the 28th of January 1986. A leak in the right booster doomed the ship; unusually cold weather that morning left Challenger’s booster rockets with stiff O-ring seals. “And we wondered whether it would continue”, Crosby said.

“She says the Challenger families remain close knit today, attending each other’s family events like graduations and weddings, as well as serving on the Challenger center board of directors”.