35 Years Since Challenger Launch Disaster: 'Never Forgotten' 28 January 2021, by Marcia Dunn

35 years since Challenger launch disaster: 'Never forgotten' 28 January 2021, by Marcia Dunn

the crew was lost; the sky was so clear that frigid morning that she could see the doomed launch all the way across the state.

The widow of Challenger commander Dick Scobee quietly observed the anniversary from her home in Chattanooga, Tennessee. In a recent interview, June Scobee Rodgers said the presence of teacher Christa McAuliffe on the flight added to the crew's lasting legacy.

Scobee Rodgers, herself a longtime educator, said her husband was assigned the teacher-in-space flight because of her own career. NASA figured "he would have compassion for a teacher," she told Flowers line the railing placed their by visitors at the The Associated Press. Space Mirror Memorial during a ceremony to honor fallen astronauts at the Kennedy Space Center Visitors Complex, Thursday, Jan. 28, 2021, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. The memorial displays the names of astronauts that lost their lives furthering the cause of space exploration. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

NASA leaders, retired launch directors, families of fallen astronauts and space fans marked the 35th anniversary of the Challenger disaster on Thursday, vowing never to forget the seven who died during liftoff.

The pandemic kept this year's remembrance more muted than usual.

Barely 100 people—all masked and seated or standing far apart—gathered in front of Kennedy Space Center's Space Mirror Memorial. The late morning ceremony was held almost exactly the same time as the accident shortly after liftoff on Jan. 28, 1986. The sun illuminates the seven names of the astronauts Among the attendees: Donna Smith, visiting from killed in the 1986 Challenger shuttle disaster as a wreath Florida's Gulf Coast to "make sure they're never is laid at the base of the Space Mirror Memorial during a 35th anniversary commemoration ceremony at Kennedy forgotten." She was a high school student when Space Center, Fla., Thursday, January 28, 2021. (Joe

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Burbank/Orlando Sentinel via AP) Canaveral, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

A social studies teacher in Concord, New Seven were killed during reentry aboard shuttle Hampshire, McAuliffe was going to perform Columbia on Feb. 1, 2003. Three died in the Apollo experiments and offer lessons from space. 1 fire on the launch pad on Jan. 27, 1967. Another was killed in a Virgin Galactic test flight in 2014. Scobee Rodgers helped establish the Challenger Plane crashes claimed the rest. Center for Space Science Education in the wake of the accident, along with the other Challenger "We honor these heroes and remind ourselves of families. She said that helped all of them heal and the lessons that the past continues to teach us," "move forward." said Kennedy's deputy director, Janet Petro.

"In their loss, somehow, their mission continues in Petro noted that SpaceX is now flying astronauts to many, many different ways," she said. the International Space Station for NASA, and more new spaceships are on the horizon. Many of the Flags flew half-staff at NASA centers around the newcomers were not around for the shuttle country Thursday, with small ceremonies also held accidents, she said, and so the hard lessons must at Johnson Space Center in Houston and Arlington be shared. National Cemetery in Virginia. The U.S. Mint is offering a new commemorative silver dollar Poor management and a stifling culture contributed honoring McAuliffe. to both shuttle accidents. Challenger was brought down by eroded O-ring seals in the right solid This year's observance focused on the Challenger rocket booster, Columbia by a chunk of foam crew—McAuliffe, Scobee, Michael Smith, Judith insulation that broke off the fuel tank at liftoff and Resnik, Ellison Onizuka, Ronald McNair and pierced the left wing. Gregory Jarvis. But it also paid tribute to the 18 others whose names are carved into the massive granite mirror at Kennedy's visitor complex.

Retired Army Colonel Cynthia Watkins places a flower at the Space Mirror Memorial during a ceremony to honor fallen astronauts at the at the Kennedy Space Center Visitors Complex, Thursday, Jan. 28, 2021, in Cape

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A wreath placed at the base of the Space Mirror Crissy Sokol places a flower at the Space Mirror Memorial stands during a ceremony to honor fallen Memorial during a ceremony to honor fallen astronauts at astronauts at the Kennedy Space Center Visitors the at the Kennedy Space Center Visitors Complex, Complex, Thursday, Jan. 28, 2021, in Cape Canaveral, Thursday, Jan. 28, 2021, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. (AP Fla. The memorial displays the names of astronauts that Photo/John Raoux) lost their lives furthering the cause of space exploration. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

Retired launch director Mike Leinbach—who was at Kennedy for both shuttle tragedies—said his one wish is for no more names to be added to the memorial.

"It's already too full."

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APA citation: 35 years since Challenger launch disaster: 'Never forgotten' (2021, January 28) retrieved 28 September 2021 from https://phys.org/news/2021-01-years-disaster-forgotten.html

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