United States remembers astronauts killed, pledges to reach Mars

Family members of some of the fallen astronauts attended Thursdays ceremony in Florida, including McAuliffes son, who was just 9 when the explosion occurred.

McAuliffe said he’s pleased that “Christa’s goals have been largely accomplished in that she has inspired generations of classroom teachers and students”.

June Scobee Rodgers — widow of Challenger commander Dick Scobee and longtime spokeswoman for the group — passed the torch to daughter Kathie Scobee Fulgham.

“The whole entire evening will be free to the community, just to give our thank you for being apart of our community of our Challenger Center”, said Director of the Challenger Learning Center at WJU, Jackie Shia. Some were said to have survived the initial breakup of the spacecraft; the exact time of death of each astronaut still remains unknown.

“NASA will pay will tribute to the crews of Apollo 1 and space shuttles Challenger and Columbia, as well as other NASA colleagues, during the agency’s Day of Remembrance on Thursday, Jan. 28, the 30th anniversary of the Challenger accident”, said NASA’s Karen Northon. The McAuliffes normally do not take part in these NASA memorials, so Scott’s presence is especially noteworthy. For 73 seconds the spaceship was in the air before a failed rubber seal in the shuttle’s right booster rocket caused an explosion.

Moments after take off the Challenger Space Shuttle is engulfed in a fireball. “Our thoughts and memories of Christa will always be fresh and comforting”. He reminded the crowd that if the Marshall Space Flight Center had not pushed forward after the Challenger disaster, there would have been no Hubble telescope… “That’s what they really focus on with the kids”.

Besides Dick Scobee and Christa McAuliffe, the Challenger dead include pilot Michael Smith, Judith Resnik, Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka and Gregory Jarvis. She remembers Francis R. Scobee, the “deep and poetic thinker” who showed her how a true leader behaves.

“She was an incredible teacher who made everyone feel important”.

People all over the nation are remembering the Challenger astronauts with ceremonies of their own on Thursday. Viola was only 11 years old at the time of the Challenger tragedy. “It’s in the history books”, Rodgers said.