“The passage of 30 years since the Challenger accident is not of great personal significance to our family”, Mr. McAuliffe, her husband, said in a statement to The Associated Press.
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Teachers and school board members are also gathering at the McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center in Concord, N.H.to pay tribute to crewmember and teacher Christa McAuliffe and the six other astronauts who died.
This time of year marks a trio of solemn anniversaries for NASA.
They include three astronauts killed in a launch pad fire in 1967 and the seven who died when the Space Shuttle Columbia broke apart on its return to Earth in 2003. “She challenged herself, and she challenged those around her, so we remember (her memory) as a way to fulfill our dreams for our students”. The astronauts included Francis R. (Dick) Scobee, mission commander; Judith A. Resnik, mission specialist; Ronald E. McNair, mission specialist; Mike J. Smith, pilot; and Ellison S. Onizuka, mission specialist.
At the time, on that January morning 30 years ago today, the launch of the Challenger was not a big deal as it prepared to take off. Space shuttle launches had become so normal and so routine, there was no more automatic live radio and TV coverage of them. A seal on one of the solid rocket boosters was not working properly.
McAuliffe’s son, Scott, 39, took part in the ceremony as well, the AP reported.
177-a-14-(Barbara Morgan, teacher and a former NASA astronaut, during memorial service at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex)-“for the stars”-Barbara Morgan, Christa McAuliffe’s backup in the Teacher in Space program, says the Challenger crew believed their mission was worth the risk”.
She always wanted to be an astronaut.
“There had been 25 space flights with a shuttle and they’d all went well, but then, suddenly, this one went horribly wrong”, Garneau said.
“So the 25th space shuttle mission is now on the way after more delays than NASA cares to count”.
NASA is holding a day of remembrance to commemorate the crews of Challenger, Apollo 1 and Columbia. “They’re actually lessons learned”, said Scobee Rodgers, an educator who lives in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
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To honour the crew, their families and friends came together to establish the Challenger Center.
