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Teacher in Space · Mission 51-L · Jan 28, 1986 · Aftermath

Aftermath

President Ronald Reagan's annual State of the Union address had been scheduled for that evening. Days earlier, NASA had proposed that he mention the Challenger mission by saying, "Tonight, while I am speaking to you, a young elementary school teacher from Concord, New Hampshire, is taking us all on the ultimate field trip as she orbits the earth as the first citizen passenger on the space shuttle."

Instead, the President's address was postponed. In its place, President Reagan spoke to a grieving nation. Broadcast at 5:00 p.m., he took care to mention the children who were watching the live coverage of the shuttle's launch: "I know it is hard to understand, but sometimes painful things like this happen. It's all part of the process of exploration and discovery. It's all part of taking a chance and expanding man's horizons. The future doesn't belong to the fainthearted; it belongs to the brave. The Challenger crew was pulling us into the future, and we'll continue to follow them."

He concluded his remarks by quoting from High Flight, a poem originally published in 1942: "We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and 'slipped the surly bonds of earth' to 'touch the face of God.'"

The Rogers Commission

A blue ribbon presidential commission headed by former Secretary of State William P. Rogers was convened to find the cause of the tragedy. Fourteen members, including Richard Feynman, Neil Armstrong, and Chuck Yeager, published their findings in June. The commission concluded in that the Challenger space shuttle was lost due to an O-ring in the right solid-rocket rooster. It was supposed to seal two of its sections, but had been hardened by the cold and ruptured under the tremendous heat and pressure of the shuttle's launch.

A Teacher in Training

Following the Challenger accident, NASA continued its active engagement and involvement with America's teachers and students. Barbara Morgan, Christa McAuliffe's back up, was appointed by then-Acting NASA Administrator, William Graham, as the Teacher in Space designee. In this role, she worked with NASA's Education program, and met with teachers and students across the country to share her NASA experiences.

NASA reactivated the Teacher in Space Program in 1998. Barbara Morgan was selected as NASA's first Educator Mission Specialist. This new position was different from the earlier Teacher in Space Program. Educator Missions Specialists were fully proficient astronauts. NASA mandated that Morgan become an astronaut candidate and complete full training before she would be eligible for assignment to a mission. In April 2002, it was announced that she would be assigned to a shuttle flight in 2004. Her mission has been postponed as a result of the loss of the Columbia Space shuttle in February 2003.

The Challenger Family

Challenger family members were interviewed extensively on the tenth observance of the accident. Marcia Jarvis Tinsley, Greg's widow, reflected, "For a while, you don't think it really happened. But you get through that. I don't think hiding from the reality of the situation makes you come out of it." Lorna Onizuka, Ellison's widow, told a journalist from Life magazine, "I could spend the rest of my life being angry at something I couldn't change. My husband believed that this mission was worth his life."

Recently, on the eighteenth observance of the Challenger accident, CNN anchorman Miles O'Brien asked June Scobee Rodgers how everybody was holding up. She replied, "Everyone's great. Lovely families, children and grandchildren galore. Marriages coming up for some of our children in the next few months. So we're moving on and living a very exciting life as we continue this mission for our loved ones."

Four times a year, most of the family members come to the headquarters of the organization they founded almost twenty years ago to participate in Challenger Center board meetings. The seven loved ones who perished on a cold winter's morning are certainly in their thoughts. But as they walk by the office's reception area, they can watch school children working animatedly in the flagship Challenger Learning Center simulator. As these middle school students work together to complete their mission, it becomes clear that they are also in effect completing a mission started many years previously.

June Scobee Rodgers once said, "I know the mission continues when I visit the (Learning) Centers and see the children in action. I can see it in their faces. I can here it in their voices. I can feel it when I hear comments from their teachers about the increased self-esteem of underprivileged children. When teachers participate in our workshops, when they get excited about lessons they'll be taking back to their classrooms, Christa's legacy continues."