January 28, 1986.
If you were around back then, you remember exactly what you were doing. I remember seeing what I saw, and not really understanding it. Clearly, most in 3rd grade are still rolling in the realm of egocentricity, and so I didn’t really understand why the teachers at school were so upset.
For that very reason, the name Christa McAuliffe and the word Challenger are synonymous with one another. McAuliffe was the school teacher who had gone through the NASA astronaut training to become the first teacher to experience space flight. Everyone-was-watching. Everyone.
It was a pivotal day for American space exploration. It seemed it could be the day that doomed national opinion of desired space exploration–that it was more want based on curiosity, prone to tragedy, than something that was actually needed.
I don’t remember a whole heck of a lot about the day, but I do remember becoming a fan of Ronald Reagan in the aftermath. I remember my teacher echoing his sentiment. Reagan was asked what he would say to the children of the nation who were obviously glued to the TV in their classrooms, as people were in their homes or in their offices:
“Make it plain to them that life does go on and you don’t back up and quit some worthwhile endeavor because of tragedy.”
