GANNETT '}::~~~·'"~-·~.'.;. ·, ',~ TH_~ SPACE COAST'S NEWSPAPER 35 CENTS THE-FATAL MISSION • Christa McAuliffe's hometown in TRAGEDYIN SPACE shock . SA. • Armed forces, NASA rescue crews contlnue search by boat, 6A. • President Reagan defends NASA safety record; says USA will 13 PAGESOF. continue quest in space, 7A. • How it happened: NASA, experts STORIES,PICJURES search for clues to tragedy, 8A. ANDCOMMENTAIY • A time to mourn, Editorial, 14A. • Reagan praises courage of IN THISEDITION Challenger crew, 15A. PUBLISHED IN BREVARD COUNTY Explosion. stuns nation
WEDNESDAY,January 29, 1986• • HEADLINES
L 1 TODAY'S WEATHER: Fair, warmer; high in mid- to upper 60s. Weather, 16A.
ARCTIC FRONT spares most of the state's citrus industry, but vegetable growers scramble to save their crops, IB
THIRTY WORKERS with financially troupled Adobe Building Centers, including six from Rockledge, have been laid off, 16C.
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Amy Clark, 1D Horoscope, 90 Bridge, 90 Don Coble, 18 Business, 18C Letters, 1SA Classified, 8-15C MIit Salamon, 16A Comics, 100 Movies, 40 Crossword, 90 People, 1-90 Michael R. Brown, FLORIDA TODAY Dear Abby, 90 Sports, 1·7C DISASTROUS MISSION: As Challenger explodes about 1 Yaminutes after launch, the rocket poosters are propelled to eitl)er side in NASA's worst tragedy. Deaths, 13A . Editorials, 14 & 15A Television, 30 HELPI, 16A Weather, 16A 'Oh no! Oh God!': S~ven die in fiery blast
By Chet Lwmer FLORIDA TODAY SHUTTLE DISASTER: Roundup of Candidates Challenger's ill-fated mission, including the __,.. _.,,,,...,.,_ mood in Houston, Concord, for mission All they found early Tues N.H., and Cape Canaveral; day was an empty parachute, a .. • students witness blast; a ghostly marker floating in IO reel in-shock foot seas 20 miles from the • • \ look at the space program; " ' 1 the final hours of the mis- By Hanna Lea Undsey launch pad. ;;;.;;;;.;;;;;;..;;;;;;;;; sion and its members; Pres FLORIDA TODAY By Tuesday night, several ident Reagan cancels State of Union speech. A "small chunks" of the Space section, USA TODAY. Seconds after watching the Shuttle Challenger had been Shuttle explode in midair, Judith found in the Atlantic Ocean off Kinlock's fourth-grade students Cape Canaveral, but officials For all the news from around the country at Golfview Elementary in said there were no signs of the and the world, see USA TODAY everyday. Rockledge grabbed at her skirt, seven crew members. crying, and said, "We're glad A nation that had cheered To place your order for home delivery of you're with us." "the magnif icent flying ma USA TODAY and FLORIDA TODAY at the chine" as it roared off its launch The children knew it could pad Tuesday morning fell into combination rate of $3.25 a week call 631· have been their teacher aboard 2780 anytime from 8 a.m. until 9 p.m. mourning. that Shuttle. "Oh no! Oh God! I can't Kinlock ·is one of about 20 look," spectators cried, as the Brevard teachers who applied to 100-ton Orbiter disintegrated in a be the first teacher sent -into giant ball of smoke and name space aboard the Shuttle. that scarred the cloudless sky "All day long, other teach above Kennedy Space Center . ers at the school have come up "There has been an explo to me, hugged me and said, sion," Mission Control an 'We're glad you're with us,' " nounced from Houston. The Kinlock said. "But I told every Shuttle is fueled by 500,000 gal one that I'd do it again, I'd apply lons of volatile liquid hydrogen again, if I had it to do over. One and oxygen. of the first things that occurred Space center regulars , PamPeters to me is that Christa (McAu usually the picture of "Righ t liffe) had small children and Stuff"s toicism, were stunned , • Occupdon: then tearful, as the magnitude of that I have none. Had it been FLORIDA TOOAY-UP I President of the me, it would have been easier on the traged y sunk in. Thousands Melbourne myfamilY,." GRIEVING PARENTS: Shock registers on the parents, Grace and Edward Corrigan, after of reporters rushed to the site of branch of the faces of guest astronaut Christa McAullffe's Challenger explodes moments after liftoff. America's wors t space tragedy, American Kinlock said she spent most of the day talking to the children the first fatalities in the Shuttle Association of program . University about disasters of the past "and cussing McAuliffe's pending are quivering and our eyes are to consider." how there were patriots who flight. just glued to the TV screen. NASA managers immedi Women. Peggy Ashley, a teacher at ately impounded all evidence • Favortte died for America . . . The chil "Now I just really empa Some students even skipped Satellite High, said she was dren had a good cry. They're all lW1ch so they could watch the concerning the tragic flight, co 119: thize with her family," Davis "really stunned" to hear of the named an investigation board "University of staying very close to me today. said. "I guess she did what a TV reports. It really affected tragedy. them." and suspended the Shuttle pro Michigan, my "I know that, as a teacher, good teacher had to do. I just "I wondered why I was not alma mater." gram until Tuesday 's events can Christa did what she wanted to kept thinking about my grand Joan Holliday, ~ teacher at selected,' Ashley said. "Now I be understood. •H~ do and she died doing her job. mother, who said she didn't Gemini Elementary in Mel just feel like someone was •·we will not speculate- on college COUl'M Calculus. "I had an Christa went up there for all of want me to be chosen because bourne Beach, said "anyone who watching out for me. I just instructor who barely spoke English, the speci fic caui,e," Jesse us, and we knew that. We're she'd never get any rest while I applied (to be the first teacher bowed my head . And I have to Moore, head of NASA's Shuttle and the topic is Greek, anyway:· very proud of her. Christa was a was up there." in space) is extremely shook up. feel itls the Lord's work." •~ambition: "To be employed as program told reporters Tuesday patriot." Davis said her class is still I think a little piece of all of us R\ndy Wilber, a Titusville afternoon . As he gravely fielded an advertising artist." who fil,led out the form died, too. • AdmlrN: Mary Cassat, an American Ginger Davis, a teacher of "numb" from the experience. High teacher who also applied to questions near fhe viewing artist during the Impressionist period gifted students at Roosevelt "My students had all been say "But if you applied, the the program , said "it did go stands four miles from the who gained respect in France when School in Cocoa Beach, said she ing how disappointed they were thought probably went through through my head when I heard launch pad , Moore was framed women generally were not respected. felt jealousy Monday night as I wasn't chosen. But now they your mind that something might about what happened that it she watched newscasters dis· say they·re so glad. Our insides happen. It's something you have could have been me up there." See TRAGEDY, Next Page 2A * FLORIDA TODAY, Wednesday, January 29, 1986
Seven heroes die in fiery explosion er-in-space Christa McAuliffe, a private citizen to join a crew. TRAGEDY , From IA Concord, N.H., high school teacher She had won out over 11,000 flying as the nation's first ordinary teachers in a nationwide competi by NASA's familiar oversized citizen in space. tion for the honor. countdown clock and a flagpole. Launch pad workers had hand Tuesday's launch had resisted ed her an apple as she climbed into Its American flag was at half NASA's efforts for six days. Three the Shuttle, and thousands of staff. times the launch was canceled schoolchildren nationwide watched when weather was unfavorable, "All of the people involved in the liftoff that NASA had sched either at .KSC or at NASA's trans this program felt that Challenger uled for maximum school partici Atlantic emergency landing sites. · I was ready to go,'' Moore said. "All pation. McAuliffe was to have The Shuttle thundered aloft at early indicators have indicated taught two classes from space. 11:38 a.m., after two hours of I that the launch was normal until In a poignant aside, the presi delays caused by subfreezing con about a minute or so into the dent addressed the children who ditions that had encrusted . the • flight." may have seen the Shuttle ex- launch pad with icicles. President Reagan echoed plode. . The day before, ground crews Moor e's somber tone in a nation "I know it's hard to under had used up the available launch wide television appearance later in stand, but sometimes painful time removing a stubborn fastener the day. "It is truly a national things like this happen," Reagan from a,door handle on the outside loss," he said. "We mourn seven said. of the crew hatch. heroes. We mourn their loss as a Vice President George Bush Once in orbjt, Challenger's nation together." headed a contingent dispatched to crew was to hav'e deployed two · Aboard the flight, NASA's 25th Kennedy by Reagan to comfort the satellites - a $100 million relay FLORIDA TODAY - UPI Shuttle launch: crew's family members, who were station for NASA's use and a satel PRESS CONFERENCE: Sen. Jake Garn , A-Utah, press conference . Both agreed the space pro Commander Francis R. sequestered in the crew quarters lite to take measurements of Hal and Vice President George Bush speak at KSC gram must continue . "Dick" Scobee, of Washington at Kennedy after the explosion. ley's comet. state; pilot Michael J. Smith, Bush was joined by Sens. Jake Moore was asked whether the North Carolina; mission specialists Garn, R-Utah, and John Glenn, D Shuttle may be too complicated a Ellison Onizuka, Hawaii; Ronald Ohio, both of whom have flown in machine upon which to build McNair, South Carolina; and Ju space. Glenn is a former astro America's future space efforts. Space ,xploration must continue dith Resnik, Ohio. naut. Garn flew aboard an April "That <[uestion, I'm sure, will Hughes Aircraft Co. had Gre 1984 Shuttle mission as NASA's be asked," Moore replied . "I don't gory Jarvis, a Detroit native, as a first congressional observer. want to speculate on that at this to honor astronauts, Bush says payload specialist, aboard. But the U.S,. R~. Bill Nelson had fol point in time, but it's certainly a crew member who had captured lowed ""Ga~s precedent last logical question for somebody to By Phil Williams ter, talking individually with the our daily lives or as a nation, stop America 's imagination was teach- month, buf'McAuliffe was the first ask." FLORIDA TODAY famil y of each crew member who exploring, stop hoping, stop discov perished, according to NASA offi ering. We must press on." Vice President George Bush cials. There were about 25 rela Those views were echoed by MANAGEMENT DIRECTORY flew to Kennedy Space Center late tives present. Glenn, one of the original seven FLORIDATODAY Telephone: S32-&700 Tuesday to visit with family mem From there, Bush traveled to U.S. astronauts and the first Amer F,.,,k V9118, bers of the dead Space Shuttle the KSC Launch Control Center ican to orbit the Earth in 1962. Established March 21 , 1966, Dl!LIVERY: To r-1 la del'-J or Publisher ...... • . ... • ...... Ext. 300 astronauts and confer with NASA where NASA officials are try ing to "It's been nearly a quarter of - ...,._ c:oplee, ~ CIII Buddy Beker, determine what caused Challenger by Gannett Co. Inc. (-.rd) 131-2780 or (lndlM -) 517- officials investigating the tragedy. a century that we thought this Editor ...... Ext. 309 to explode shortly after takeoff. Send,.. Beker, A teary-eyed Bush, accomp,a might happen sometime. But we Allen H. Neuharth - - 1- Lm. delly - - wlce- houra....., .. . Cln:u._trom I e.m.- lo 5 p.m.-- Executive Editor ...... •...... Ext. 285 nied by U.S. Sens. Jake Garn, R , Details of his conversation have delayed that day until today," Chairman _.., -., F11dey, fnlm I e.m. lo David Lertmer, Utah, and John Glenn, D-Ohio, said were not released. said Glenn - his eyes moist and 10-.30 Lffl. _...,., - fnlm I Lffl. lo Managing Editor ...... Ext. 306 . John Drudcenmlller, that the nation's reaction to the " The President and I and the voice cracking. Vol. 20, No. 308 _.....,. death of the seven crew members Wednesday, Jan. 29 , 1986 TELEPHONES Asst. Managing Editor . . . . • . .. Ext. 315 entire nation join in mourning " We hoped that this day would TomSqultw, must be renewed dedication to these seven splendid men and PubH.tled mornings and Sun ~.....- ...... 517-3044 never come. But unfortunately it Sports Editor . ..•...... • . • . . Ext. 365 continuing the space program. women who now rest in God's ~Y by Cape Publlcatlona Inc., ~- l--...... sa-1n1 LNF..-nen, has, and with a tragedy all Ameri All_..,._,...... 517-3044 308 ForNSt Ave., Cocoa, Fla. State Editor ...... •.. . . Ext . 329 "We must be as they were - arms,'' Bush said in a statement. cans share together." 32922. ~--- •.•.... 131-2780 Nick White, great in spirit, great in courage "Today 's tragedy reminds us Editor , Editorial Page . . ...• • . .. Ext. 307 The former astronaut said that ~~ ...... 13&-1030 and great in dedication to the that danger awaits all who push the country must not forget that no Fri;mkVega, Publisher Dtepl8J-ng -...... 132-8700 Be4ly Shlmebukuro, adventure of which they were so back the frontier of space. It re & Chief Executive Officer - ...... •...... 132-8700 Editor, People Section ... . ••. . . Ext . 279 lives have been lost in 56 flights All-~ ...... 132-8700 BHI Dunn, much a part," Bush said. minds us that the great adventure into space with cr ew aboard. Some Vince Spezzano, Graphic Arts Director ...... Ext. 397 of space travel requires men and · Chairman of the Board CUS&IFIED ADS:~ - merbe "We must resolve that , like relatives of the seven crew mem women of spirit and bravery. " \ ~ - ... - .. of 7:30 Lffl, Business-P-. Editor ...... Ext. 322 ' America's pioneers of the past, bers who died had told NASA SUNCAIPTION ~TES:(--) =-~::::::=:=.Frldey- Amy Cwt<. • others will follow, others will ex Bush also offered words of officials that the accident should Women's Edltbr , Columnist . ... . Ext. 276 plore, others will risk as these encouragement to the nation's not endanger the space program, n,e ...-... - ... r1glll lo seven great Americans risked schoolchildren and especially to Glenn said. a~ :::::::::::::::::::~5-... •1111C 1pllon - clurtng ... PeuleCatledge, ol • ...... upon 30 wm up Advertising Directo r ...... Ext. 302 today." the children of Concord, N.H. -the Garn said he jained the rest of USA TODAY (~11d8y),, •.• 12.50 be.., mell lo ... -.1111a-- JeyClert!, Arriving at the KSC landing home of teacher Christa McAu the country in its sorrow. "It has Delly /Sund-, ...... Human Resources Director .. ... Ext . 264 site at about 5:15 p.m. Tuesday, liffe, the first"Pri vate citizen to fly been a very diffi cult day for me - USA TODAY. -,.Frlcllly .. ..,-- EllleKnowtee, _,us -- aboard the Space Shuttle. --.or--p-llon.., -..,.- -- .,. _mer be...... o1 ...... Circulation Director ...... Ext . 254 Bush spent just over two hours personally because I knew each of Dellyonly ecitpaon. Amyl'lld<, meeting with members of the "You must try to understand them," said Garn . He became the wt1II USA TODAY,-....,...._,. .. SUS Promotion Director. . ..•• ..... Ext. 262 -a..-pold .. Cocoo,Florido, nm. press, talking with the families of that spirit, bravery and commit first politician to fly into space last ' Jim Plllrlck, All __ ., - Ill -- Y..ty P I I ~ ST. EDWARD'S PARENTS ASSOCIATION & JAFAR FALASIRI PRESENT AN Oriental Rug Exhibit an ·d Sale THURSDAY JANUARY 30 THROUGH SUNDAY FEBRU~RY 2 Collectors take note. 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