One of those astronauts was educator Christa McAuliffe, who competed with thousands of teachers across the nation, to become the first teacher in space. He was at Kennedy Space Center for Challenger’s launch and had gotten to know not only McAuliffe, but a few of the other astronauts on the doomed flight. She was only 37 at the time of her death and was a part of the Teacher in Space program. The school paid tribute to its namesake during a ceremony Thursday to honor the 30th anniversary of the Challenger explosion. Three crew members were killed in an accidental fire in Apollo 1’s Command/Service Module during a launch rehearsal test in 1967, and more recently, the Columbia space shuttle disintegrated over Texas and Louisiana in 2003, killing all seven crew members. The shuttle was only in the air for 73 seconds before the lives of Francis “Dick” Scobee, Michael Smith, Christa McAuliffe, Judith Resnik, Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka and Gregory Jarvis were tragically cut short. Bush said he met with the families of the lost astronauts and relayed that they pleaded that the space shuttle program continue “forward full speed”.
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“I remember my mother calling me and saying, well at least we would have been comforted knowing you were doing something you always wanted to do”, she said.
Miranda Manning is a flight director for the simulators at the Challenger Learning Center. They were going to use space to inspire a new generation of scientists and engineers and astronauts. The gathering took place beneath the suspended shuttle Atlantis, which in 2011 made the final shuttle flight. Morgan returned to teaching, but in 1998, NASA asked her to return, this time as a full-fledged astronaut. NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and others will lay a wreath at Arlington National Cemetery, and NASA workers at Kennedy Space Center and the agency’s other centers will hold events. Were you a child sitting in school watching with your class?
Years after the tragedy, Jackson School District officials were preparing to open a new middle school and debated who to name the school after.
“It’s fantastic that by July of ’69 there were people walking on the moon”, said state Sen.
Rocket center workers, guests and space campers gathered to remember one of NASA’s darkest days under the shadow of the Space Shuttle Pathfinder.
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An investigation later determined that a faulty “O-ring” seal on a rocket booster allowed hot gas to escape, leading to the explosion.
