CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Hundreds gathered at NASA’s launch site Friday to mark the 25th anniversary of the Challenger disaster, receiving words of hope from the widow of the space shuttle’s commander.
The chilly outdoor ceremony drew space agency managers, former astronauts, past and present launch directors, family and friends of the fallen crew — and schoolchildren who weren’t yet born when the space shuttle carrying a high school teacher from Concord, N.H., erupted in the sky.
The accident Jan. 28, 1986 — 73 seconds into flight — killed all seven on board, including schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe.
June Scobee Rodgers, the widow of Challenger’s commander, Dick Scobee, urged the crowd to “boldly look to the future” not only in space travel but in space and science education. She was instrumental in establishing the Challenger Center for Space Science Education.
“The entire world knew how the Challenger crew died,” she said. “We wanted the world to know how they lived and for what they were risking their lives.”
Rodgers and NASA’s space operations chief, Bill Gerstenmaier, placed a memorial wreath of red, white and blue-tinted carnations at the base of the Space Mirror Memorial. The 42-foot-tall gleaming mirrored slab of granite bears the names of all 24 astronauts killed in the line of duty over the years — 17 of those in U.S. spacecraft.
Peggy Shecket, who traveled from Cleveland, made a point to be at the ceremony. Her dear friend Judith Resnik was aboard Challenger that freezing morning.
The two women, back in the mid-1980s, lived such different lives. Shecket was a suburban Ohio mom with two sons. Resnik had become the second American woman in space. But their bond was strong: Resnik invited Shecket to the launch, and she went.
A photo she took an instant before the shuttle exploded hangs on her family room wall.
“I miss her terribly,” Shecket said. “At this age, in our 60s, we could have gone to ladies’ weekends together. She probably would have had time that she didn’t have 25 years ago because she was so busy.”
At the high school in Concord where McAuliffe taught, special assemblies were held Friday in her honor. Anniversary events also took place at Challenger Learning Centers across the country.
This silver anniversary comes as NASA winds down the space shuttle program. The fleet will be retired after three more flights this year.
