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HISTORY As with the Challenger, a nation is joined in grief
By Bob Hohler, Globe Staff, 2/2/2003
And just like the Columbia families, they learned firsthand the terrible risks of manned space flight. On Jan. 28, 1986, under a Florida sky even bluer than yesterday's and amid an unusual chill, McAuliffe's husband, Steven, her young children - Scott and Caroline - and throngs of other supporters watched in horror as the Challenger exploded 73 seconds after liftoff at 11:39 a.m., in the worst US space disaster until now. Millions of others, most of them schoolchildren seated before televisions in classrooms across the country, were among the witnesses. McAuliffe had prevailed in a contest among more than 11,000 teachers for a berth on the Challenger, and NASA had presented her as a pioneer for ordinary citizens. If McAuliffe, a social studies teacher at Concord High School who seemed like the woman next door, could fly in space, anyone could, NASA suggested. So it was that the tragedy was so deeply felt. The flight crew was one of the most diverse in history, including the nation's first Jewish astronaut, Judith Resnick.
McAuliffe's parents, Grace and Ed Corrigan, stood among her siblings and legions of teachers and students from Concord, N.H., as the Challenger broke apart nearly nine miles above the space center and fell into the sea. ''I'm not doing too well,'' Grace Corrigan said yesterday. ''All I know is it's very upsetting. I feel the same way everyone around the country feels.'' In the hours after the Challenger disaster, President Reagan canceled his State of the Union speech scheduled for that evening. ''The future doesn't belong to the fainthearted; it belongs to the brave,'' Reagan said. ''We'll continue our quest in space. There will be more shuttle flights and more shuttle crews and yes, more volunteers, more civilians, more teachers in space.'' But it was more than two-and-a-half years later before shuttle flights would resume after NASA made numerous changes. The Challenger explosion followed a problematic launch in unusually cold weather. Soon afterward, the word came from NASA's Steve Nesbitt, ''We have a report from the flight dynamics officer that the vehicle has exploded. Flight director confirms that.'' Challenger did not `explode'' in the common sense of the word; it was set aflame by a leak in the seals of a right booster rocket. A presidential commission criticized NASA for ignoring evidence that other booster rockets had leaks. A rash of firings at top levels of NASA followed. NASA was to hire three to six teachers for its next astronaut class. The first teacher to fly was supposed to be Barbara Morgan, a former Idaho grade-school teacher who trained with McAuliffe. But her flight - and the teacher-in-space program - once again is on hold. Material from the Associated Press was used in this article.
This story ran on page A24 of the Boston Globe on 2/2/2003.
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APE CANAVERAL, Fla. -They gathered, much like the families of the Columbia crew did yesterday, at Kennedy Space Center anticipating a glorious feat. They jammed a rooftop and grandstands within sight of the launchpad, the friends, relatives, and students of Christa McAuliffe, a Concord, N.H., schoolteacher, and her six crewmates aboard the space shuttle Challenger.
