The Tragic Challenger Explosion Essay Research Paper

The Tragic Challenger Explosion Essay, Research Paper

The Tragic Challenger Explosion

The Tragic Challenger Explosion Space Travel. It is a sense of national pride

for many Americans. If you ask anyone who was alive at the time, they could

probably tell you exactly where they were when they heard that Neil Armstrong

was the first person to walk on the Moon. But all of the success in our space

programs is overshadowed by tragedy. On January 28, 1986, one of the worst

disasters in our space program’s history occurred. Many people were watching at

the moment because it was the highly televised space mission where, for the

first time, a civilian was a member of the crew that was to be shot into space.

This civilian was the winner of the “Teacher in Space” contest, Christa

McAuliffe. The disaster: the explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger.

(Compton’s 1) Many people thought that disaster couldn’t strike because a

civilian was on board. But as the whole nation found out, nobody is immortal.

By examining this further, we will look at the lives of the seven who died in

this dumbfounding calamity, take a look at exactly what went wrong during this

fateful mission, and the outcome from this sorrowful occurrence. First, who

exactly were those astronauts that died on the Challenger. Sharon Christa

Corrigan McAuliffe, born in 1948, was the famous winner of the teacher-in-space

program, was a high school teacher at Concord, N. H., a wife, and a mother of

two children. She touched the lives of all those she knew and taught. As a

school official in Concord said after her death, “To us, she seemed average.

But she turned out to be remarkable. She handled success so beautifully.” She

also wanted everyone to learn more, including herself. Demonstrating her

aspirations after entering the space program, she is quoted saying, “What are we

doing here. We’re reaching for the stars.” Also, after reflecting on her

position, she said in August 1995, “I touch the future, I teach (Gray 32).”

Francis R. (Dick) Scobee, born in 1948, was a tremendous enthusiast for aviation

and the space program. At 18 years old, he enlisted in the Air Force. While

working as a mechanic in the service, he put himself through night school,

eventually earning a degree in aerospace engineering that helped him become an

officer and a pilot. He loved flying. Scobee once observed, :You know, it’s a

real crime to be paid for a job that I have so much fun doing.” On one of his

space missions, he carried a banner made for him by students at Auburn High, his

old high school. It read “TROJANS FLY HIGH WITH SCOBEE.” School officials

announced after the tragic explosion that the banner would be put on display to

remind others at Auburn High that other seemingly ordinary students can too fly

high. (Gray 33) Judith Resnik, born 1949, had a Ph.D. in electrical engineering.

She was very ambitious and loved everything. She once said, “I want to do

everything there is to be done.” Being chosen for the space program gave her

the opportunity to meet a few self-described personal goals: “To learn a lot

about quite a number of different technologies; to be able to use them somehow,

to do something that required a concerted team effort and, finally, a great

individual effort (Gray 33).” She had said once, when asked, about the dangers

of the space program, “I think something is only dangerous if you are not

prepared for it or if you don’t have control over it or if you can’t think

through how to get yourself out of a problem.” For Resnik, danger was simply

another unknown to be mastered. Ronald McNair, born in 1950, was the second

black man in space. He was truly remarkable growing up in his segregated South

Carolina school. He was remembered by those he knew as “one who was always

looking to the clouds.” Jesse Jackson, one of his collage classmate’s at N.C.

Agricultural and Technical State University said McNair saw participation in the

space program as “the highest way he could contribute to the system that gave

him so much.” McNair did think much of the space program. He once said, “The

true courage of space flight comes from enduring . . . persevering and believing

in oneself (page 34).” Michael Smith, born in 1945, always had his head in the

clouds. At the age of 16, he soloed in a single-engine Aeronca. After the U.S.

put its first astronaut into space in 1961, Smith decided that was where he

wanted to be. His older brother said, “In high school he paid a lot of

attention to academics because he knew that was the best way to get in.” He

also thought much of the space program. He once said, “Everybody looks at

flying the shuttle as something dangerous. But it’s not. It’s a good program,

and something the country should be proud of (Gray 34).” Ellison Onizuka, born

in 1946, became an instant hero to both the Hawaiians and the Japanese Americ

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