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June Scobee Rodgers addresses Challenger memorial service. Photo Credit/NASA TV
Family, friends and co-workers gathered at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on Friday to pay tribute to the seven astronauts who perished aboard the shuttle Challenger, which shattered moments after thundering into a blue Florida sky 25 years ago.
The ceremony hosted by the Astronaut Memorial Foundation at the base of the gleaming Space Mirror Memorial followed NASA’s annual National Day of Remembrance on Thursday, which was established to honor the 17 men and women who died in the Apollo 1 fire at Kennedy on Jan. 27, 1967 and the shuttle Challenger and Columbia tragedies on Jan. 28, 1986 and Feb. 1, 2003.
Though a solemn reminder of the risks accompanying space exploration, Thursday’s memorial service was marked by a resolve among those who participated to forge ahead with the human exploration of space.
Roses graced Challenger service. Photo Credit/NASA TV
“Like everyone around the world, we were stunned to see the unspeakable unfold right before our eyes. No one believed this could happen,” said June Scobee Rodgers, the widow of Challenger commander Dick Scobee who served as the memorial’s keynote speaker. “What should have been a day heralded for education turned into tragedy in a split second. Our loved ones were gone. Our nation grieved. Our future looked uncertain.”
Scobee Rodgers and the family members of Challenger’s seven astronauts — including Christa McAuliffe, a New Hampshire school teacher who had been selected to fly as NASA’s Teacher in Space — were assembled at Kennedy that day to witness the departure of the 25th shuttle flight.
Challenger carried a communications satellite as its primary payload. But it was McAuliffe’s participation and her plans to conduct a lesson from orbit and broadcast to the nation’s classrooms that had captured the nation’s attention.
As they struggled to overcome their grief in the weeks after the tragedy, Scobee Rodgers and the families of the other astronauts grew determined to advance the mission’s educational theme.
“We began to change this unbelievable tragedy into a monumental triumph,” Scobee Rodgers recalled. “The entire world knew how the Challenger crew died. We wanted them to know how they lived and for what they were risking their lives.”
Scobee’s crew included Mike Smith, Ron McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Judy Resnik, and Hughes Aircraft Co. engineer Greg Jarvis as well as McAuliffe.
The families’ commitment jelled into the Challenger Center for Space Science Education, a non profit organization that now counts 48 learning centers in Canada, the United Kingdom and South Korea as well as the United States. Last year, the centers hosted 400,000 students, offering each youngster an opportunity to experience the merits of an education strong in math and the sciences. In all, more than four million youngsters have participated in a Challenger Center activity.
“Challenger was not the final chapter in the book of space exploration. It was just a transition chapter in this great book of space exploration, nor is the space shuttle the final chapter,” said Scobee Rodgers.
NASA plans to retire the shuttle this year after two and possibly three more missions that will mark the end of the lengthy assembly of the International Space Station.
“We are not a nation of naysayers. We are a nation of believers. We are a nation of problem solvers and risk takers with a pioneering spirit,” said Scobee Rodgers in her closing remarks. “The book will continue with exciting new chapters about more advanced space vehicles designed to carry us on exciting new adventures. We will benefit and advance the people of our planet. We have whole planets to explore and new worlds to build.”
