NASA Pays Tribute To Astronauts On 30th Anniversary Of Challenger Disaster

For the 30th anniversary, National Geographic Channel has chosen to honor the Challenger astronauts, and McAuliffe in particular, through the documentary Challenger Disaster: Lost Tapes, which premieres tonight.

The explosion jarred a nation, most notably thousands of children and teens watching live feeds in school, with the ensuing tendrils of smoke etched in a collective memory. But Sumners and Scobee Rodgers believe that the woman who once said, “I teach…and I touch the future” is still doing exactly that: inspiring students to reach for their dreams. We celebrated triumphs as one and felt heartache as one.

“I thought the painting should go to somebody who had a passion to be a part of this thing”, said Baker, 57. Her son Scott and his family are also set to attend the ceremony.

“Challenger will always be an event that occurred just recently”. Then, 73 seconds after liftoff, a fireball engulfed the shuttle. Thanks to Buzz Lightyear, there are probably more than a few kids who want to someday do a spacewalk. I kept saying, ‘Who’s this person shadowing her?’ She was always right there. They served all of us.

McAuliffe knew which buttons to push, knew how to incorporate the students in the back row, the ones with the indifferent, even hostile, attitudes toward school. Before the world knew her as “the teacher in space”, McAuliffe was known as a popular, energetic teacher who took a great interest in her students.

She said she would still jump at the chance to go into space.

“They were such an incredibly exciting team”, Sumners said of the seven astronauts she helped train in the museum planetarium in the months before their flight. “I’m going to drive down to the Springs and see if the trees are still there”. Bryant Gumbel of the “Today Show” asked her if she was nervous.

“It’s really affected me, knowing that everyday on this earth is a gift, so use that time wisely and stick to your mission and God’s given gifts, and that’s why I stayed in education”, he said. Two feet away from the door with the smell of wet winter boots permeating the school, Tim Dallas burst out of the room to tell me “The space shuttle exploded”.

“People started crying and hugging”, he said. They were family by extension and we mourned deeply in a way that only people associated with the program could fully understand.

This time of year marks a trio of solemn anniversaries for NASA.

Schoolchildren all over the country had their eyes glued either to their television sets or to the sky above them, anxious for a glimpse of the space shuttle as it was readied to streamline upwards into space carrying a crew that included the first teacher ever to breach the 264,000 feet threshold. It is an unprecedented collection of artifacts – the first time, in fact, that any Challenger or Columbia remains have been openly displayed.

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) – Thirty years after the Concord High School class of ’86 watched social studies teacher Christa McAuliffe and six astronauts perish when the space shuttle Challenger exploded on live TV, a number of them have gone into teaching – and some wonder if, indirectly, the tragedy affected them enough that they wanted to make a difference, as she did.