Challenger Disaster - A NASA Tragedy

NASA's Shuttle program was begun in the 1970s, to create reusable craft for transporting cargo into space. Previous space craft could only be used once, then were discarded. The first shuttle, Columbia was launched in 1981. One year later, the Challenger rolled off the assembly line as the second shuttle of the US fleet. They were followed by Discovery in 1983 and Atlantis in 1985.

The Challenger flew nine successful missions before that fateful day of the disaster in 1986.

Mission 51L:

Shuttle mission 51L was much like most other missions. The Challenger was scheduled to carry some cargo, the Tracking Data Relay Satellite-2 (TDRS-2), as well as fly the Shuttle-Pointed Tool for Astronomy (SPARTAN-203)/Halley's Comet Experiment Deployable, a free-flying module designed to observe tail and coma of Halleys comet with two ultraviolet spectrometers and two cameras.

One thing made this mission unique. It was scheduled to be the first flight of a new program called TISP, the Teacher In Space Program. The Challenger was scheduled to carry Sharon Christa McAuliffe, the first teacher to fly in space.
The Crew on the Challenger:

Selected from among more than 11,000 applicants from the education profession for entrance into the astronaut ranks, McAuliffe was very excited about the opportunity to participate in the space program. "I watched the Space Age being born and I would like to participate."



"We have a major malfunction." It was the flight director who wasn't watching video of the flight. He was watching instruments and lost all data feed when it blew.
I wasn't alive back then, just heard about it from facebook. I feel horrible, but I have to laugh at the end when the guy says "This is obviously a major malfunction." WELL NO SHIT SHERLOCK.


"It's difficult to have it all brought back to the forefront in my mind again," said Carol Berry, 71, a friend of McAuliffe's who was watching in person at Cape Canaveral when the Challenger blew up. "Every year, I think about it again. I just feel so badly."

In the years since the explosion, Concord has taken steps to ensure McAuliffe will never be forgotten. The local planetarium is named in her honor and houses memorabilia associated with the Challenger mission. Students and visitors are given tours and taught about her impact on the space program. Recently, the city named a soon to be completed elementary school after her, giving her an honor usually reserved for presidents and ensuring students for years to come will know her name.

Keeping McAuliffe's memory alive also is important to Holly Merrow, who graduated from Concord High in 1986 and now teaches in Portland, Maine. Merrow, taught by McAuliffe in a class about women in history, recalled that she made lessons fun, interesting and real -- and she tries to do the same.

In a rare public comment, her husband, Steven McAuliffe, recently wrote a heartfelt letter to the board about the school being named after her. "There is no honor that Christa would cherish more than to have her name associated with a school in the hometown that she loved so dearly," he wrote. "I hope generations of students, teachers and administrators who pass through the new school will be inspired by her most precious lesson -- ordinary people can make extraordinary contributions when they remain true to themselves and follow their dreams.