In Remembrance of...

On January 28, 1986, I was sitting in my 8^th grade classroom in a small private school in South Jersey. Each class only had about 20 students but that day it was packed with three other classrooms worth of kids. Our's was the only classroom with a television and we were gathered to watch history.

NASA had come up with a program that would take an ordinary educator, teach them to be an astronaut, and have them speak to school children from space. Out of more than 11,500 applications, one high school teacher from Concord, NH was chosen as that educator: Christa McAuliffe.

McAuliffe, a Framingham, MA native, took a one-year leave of absence from her job and began training with a group of astronauts in preparation for her journey on the Space Shuttle Challenger. She would be the first teacher in space and NASA was enjoying a renewed popularity in American culture it had not experienced since Apollo 11 landed on the moon.

The program had merit and NASA was hoping to garner renewed support for it's space program; unfortunately, disaster struck. Seventy-three seconds into the launch, while the world and my small classroom of school friends watched, the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded. The entire crew of seven people, including Christa McAuliffe, were lost.

This tragedy setback space exploration immeasurably. The entire space shuttle fleet was grounded during a three-year investigation, and although funding increased significantly in the following years, the program has experienced crippling budget cuts more recently. Plans to put humans back on the moon have been repeatedly nixed and President Obama has pitched the idea of privatizing space flight.

Although most of the decisions that have held back our space program are monetary, there is a certain apprehension among those who remember the Challenger. I know that event put the concept of space flight firmly in the “professionals only” category in my mind. The average citizen will not likely take that vacation to the moon anytime soon.

In addition to McAuliffe, six other people lost their lives that day. Seven families watched their personal tragedies broadcast worldwide. Seven sets of parents lost a child and eight children lost a parent. This day was not about budgets, publicity, the future of the space program or NASA's public image. This day was about the seven members of the crew who lived a dream and took a chance.

In remembrance of:

• Francis Richard “Dick” Scobee (b. 19 May 1939, d. 28 Jan. 1986), shuttle commander.
• Michael John Smith (b. 30 Apr. 1945, d. 28 Jan. 1986), pilot.
• Judith Arlene Resnik (b. 5 Apr. 1949, d. 28 Jan. 1986), mission specialist.
• Ronald Ervin McNair (b. 21 Oct. 1950, d. 28 Jan. 1986), mission specialist.
• Ellison Shoji Onizuka (b. 24 Jun. 1946, d. 28 Jan. 1986), mission specialist.
• Gregory Bruce Jarvis (b. 24 Aug. 44, d. 28 Jan. 1986), payload specialist.
• Sharon Christa McAuliffe (b. 2 Sep. 1948, d. 28 Jan. 1986), teacher.