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WE MOURN 7 HEROES'
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News Service Reports
Jubilation turned to horror across the
natiop as Americans cheering for the country's first civilian astronaut watched the
shuttle Challenger explode on live television Tuesday in the world's worst space
catastrophe.
At the White House, President Reagan
wordlessly viewed video replays of the
Challenger ttplosloo. Watching the launch
in family quarters, first lady Nancy Reagan exclaimed, "Ob my God, no!"
In Houston, Mission Control workers
clutched each other in tears*
Several states flew flags at half-staff
and legislatures drafted statements honoring the seven astronauts who perished*
New York and American stock exchanges
planned
a
minute
of
silence
at
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a.m. today in remembrance
ottbe
crew.
In Washington, National Education
President Mary Hatwood Futrell expressed shock and sorrow at the disaster
that killed ssvea astronauts, including
teacher Christa McAiiliffe.* But she also
voiced the hope that the National Aeronautics and Space A(JminlstratI6n will send
another teacher into spape soon. ,
"I would hope that the lessons that
Christa planned to teach will be taught..., I
think that's what Christa would want," she
said. . -'""'' .'."" ''
In Concord, N.H., McAuliffe's home*
town, thousands watched the televised lift5
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off. "A real shock wave of grief has covered the entire city," said City Manager
James C. Smith.
At McCormick Junior High School in
Cheyenne, Wyo.» science teacher Michael
Pearson said he was in "total shock."
"It's like getting a message your whole
family was killed/' said Pearson, one of the
more than 100 teacher semifinalists who
competed against McAuliffe to be the first
ordinary citizen to fly into space.
But he added, "I still think I'd take the
very next one up."
However, another teacher had second
thoughts about being an astronaut.
"I realize now that I have a lot to lose/'
said Bonnie Fakes of Lebanon, Tenn., a
of
high school English teacher and one of two
finalists from Tennessee. ''Before, I said I
would go in a minute...without a thought*
Nobody would say that now."
Veterans of the space program rallied to
defend the space program and said it
should continue.
Sen. John Glenn, D-Qhio, the first American to orbit the earth, said he felt "a profound, personal sense of loss" over the
death of the Challenger's seven crew members in a fiery explosion over the Atlantic.
Asked by reporters whether the NASA
should continue to give civilians seats oh
the shuttle, Glenn said, "Oh,I don't know. I
wasn't a big proponent of that.
"The space program — the reason we
have it - IB basic, "fundamental research/'
he said. "It's not to put the butcher, the
baker and candlestick-maker up there."
Retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Chuck
Yeager, whose breaking of the sound barrier was portrayed in the book and movie
"The Right Stuff," said: "When you have an
accident like this, it doesn't mean the end
of everything. You've got to fall back and
take a look. The main thing is to analyze
the data and go oij from there."
Yeager, of Grass Valley, Calif., said he
expects NASA to return for a time to its
past policy of limiting space travel to
trained government astronauts, but eventually to open up crews to others "because
the shuttle is 1 public program." ,
Families and
News Service Reports
and hometown friends of the astronauts aboard the space shuttle Challenger grieved Tuesday over the "tragedy
of Hall" but found solace in the knowledge
that the seven-member crew died while
reaching for the stars.
For some, there were no words to accompany the tears. Others spoke at length
of the ambitions and abilities that qualified
the astronauts for a trip to space.
Killed in the Challenger crash wereNew
Hampshire social studies teacher Christa
McAuliffe, Michael Smith, Francis Scobee/
Judith Resnik, Ellison Onizuka, Arnold
McNair and Gregory Jarvis, ,
$en. Jake Gam, R-Utah, who flew a shuttle mission last year, traveled to the Ken*
nedy Space Center with Vice President
George Bush and met with the families of
Challenger's crew.
Ljate Tuesday night, Gam emerged from
the;meeting and said Scobee's wife, June,
speaking for all of the families, asked that
the tragedy not be allowed to harm the
future of the space program.
l&rlier in the day, Gam fought back
tears at the news of the Challenger explosion.
[It's a bit difficult for me, to say the
least. These were my friends," Garn told
reporters.
.
,
The Rev. Wilbur Teachey of Beaufort,
N,Cf., who knew Smith as a parishioner,
said the risks never dissuaded Smith from
being an astronaut. "This had been his ambition, a dream of his. He dearly loved it no
master what."
teachey said, his parishioners "have a
tremendous grief and sorrow."
"I'll tell you exactly how I feel. I don't
have.any,.regrfits about Mike.doing „ this/'
said Patrick Smith, Michael Smith's younger'brother. "He was doing exactly what he
wanted to do. There aren't too many people
whp've .done exactly what they wanted to
do with their careers. But he's done that."
.JNlcAuliffe's husband, Steve, and their
children, Scott and Caroline, were with
their father and other family members in a
nek'rby observation building when the disaster occurred. But McAuliffe's parents,
Ed and Grace Corrigan, saw the tragedy
from the grandstands.
The Framingham, Mass., couple stood in
shocked silence as a loudspeaker broadcast
the terrible news. A National Aeronautics
House Panel
Plans Probe
Disaster
and Space Administration official then
walked up to them and said, 'The vehicle
has exploded."
A stunned Grace Corrigan said, "the vehicle has exploder V, .
.
The official nodded his head, and the
Corrigans were quickly led away.
Froi Fujin#t0ra friend of Qnizuka's,
was on the reviewing stand with the astronaut's mother and brothers and* sisters.
"The shuttle went up, and all of a sudden
we saw a big explosion," he, said. "There
was a lot of smoke. It was hard to see what
happened. There was just one big exploAlso at the launch site was Dr. Charles
Reshick, *ho teaches at the Medical College .of Virginia in Richmond.
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His sister, Judy, was to take a signet ring
and heart looket into space for her 5-yearold nephew, Randy, and 2-year-old niece,
Becky, said Dellana O'Brien, a principal at
Randy's kindergarten.
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"The kindergarten children were not
told (of the crash) before they left at 12:30,"
the principal said. "It happened so close to
dismissal time we didn't have time to help
them work through their
grief,"
_
i
Matthew Brown, McNair's sixth-grade
math and science teacher and now a school
official in his hometown of Lake City, &C.,
said hejearned of the accident while listening to the radio on his way home to lunch.
"Everybody is at grief right now," he
said.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson, a friend of
mmsmfa. ,*•
McNair's, said, "While we may not understand the,^eaninjg^of'_thte:;crisis,:
we
are
1
sustained iiy o^r-fattlrthat God never
makes a mistake."
In. Washington st^te, flags were lowered
to honor shuttle'commiander Scobee, who
graduated from Auburn High School in
1957 and went to night school to earn his
degree in aerospace engineering.
School counselor Ed Bean described Scobee as "very humble and very accommodating, a very-warm man who could be
your next-door neighbor/'
Math teacher Donald Nutter, who taught
astronaut Judith ReSnik during her years
mm^m
at Firestone High School in Akron, Ohio,
said news of the explosion stunned the
AP Loserphoto
school Tuesday morning.
Resnik, he said, was a "very quiet young Members of Christa McAuliffe's family react in horror Tuesday after the space shuttle explosion. From left are
McAuliffe's sister Betsy and McAuliffe's parents, Grace and Ed Corrigan.
lady, but an outstanding student/'
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World Shares Americans' Sorrow
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said.
United Press International
Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney said he asked U.S.
Ambassador Thomas Niles to convey Canada's "great grief at
the tragedy that has just struck the Unked States, a terrible loss
in remarkably tragic circumstances."
In Paris, the state-run television network interrupted national
broadcasts for about 10 minutes to show videotape of the explosion.
French President Francois Mitterrano, K a telegram to Reagan, said, "The French people felt, at the announcement of the
explosion of the space shuttle Challenger, a profound emotion
and sincere compassion for the astronauts aboard."
Patrick Baudry, the French astronaut who traveled to space
aboard the shuttle Discovery in June, said, "I think the sacrifice
of my friends who were on board today will not be for nothing.
There have been other accidents before. They have all served
some purpose."
Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi telephoned Reagan and
expressed "his deepest condolences and sympathies," the Press
Trust of India news agency said.
King Hussein of Jordan sent a cable to Reagan asking the
president to convey Jordan's sorrow to the families of the seven
people aboard.Challenger.
Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone said the explosion was "regrettable" and that Japan's manned space project
scheduled for 1988 may be postponed pending investigations by
U.S. authorities.
The disaster shocked Japan's government-financed National
Space Development Agency, which has chosen its first astronaut
and two substitute fliers for its manned space project.
World leaders expressed shock and sorrow over the explosion
of the space shuttle Challenger Tuesday, and videotape of the
fiery blast was broadcast on television networks around the
globe. Newspapers Wednesday threw out domestic news to banner the disaster.
"Space Horror," the Sydney Daily Mirror bannered in a black
headline spread across the page. The Daily Mail in Britain
Staff and News Service Reports
headlined: "Spaceship disaster — Teacher dies living the Ameri; WASHINGTON - While shaken by the
can dream" over a half-page picture of civilian victim Christa
space shuttle tragedy, congressmen frdm
McAuliffe.
Central New York reaffirmed their com"This is a black hour for manned space flight," West German's
mitment to the nation's space program
Minister of Research and Technology Heinz Riesenhuber said.
Tuesday even as the chairman of a House
Japan said it might postpone its 1988 manned space program
committee said he plans an investigation
pending an investigation by U.S. space officials.
into the disaster.
In Moscow, Soviet television showed the explosion on its
The House Science and Technology Comnightly news, and Polish television used the disaster to attack the
Fil« Photo
mittee, which has jurisdiction over the NaU.S. "Star Wars" program for a space-based nuclear defense.
tional Aeronautics and Space AdministraThere was no reaction from the Kremlin, but the Soviet amREP: GEORGE WORTLEY
tion, will probe the fatal explosion of the
bassador to the United Nations, Vasily Safronchuk, relayed his
'Shock and Sadness'
* *
mission's "deep sorrow" and "deepest sympathy." At least four
space shuttle Challenger once the federal
agency completes its own investigation, "'Life is either a daring adventure or Soviet cosmonauts are known to have been killed in spaceflight
said committee chairman Donald Fuqua, nothing,'" he said. "As long as man has the disasters since the history of the Soviet program.
IrisfrPrime Minister Garret Fitzgerald and President Patrick
p-Fla,
thirst for knowledge we will continue to
' Such a congressional probe is warranted, press outward. And in the process there is Hillery sent telegrams to President Reagan expressing condolences
over
the
explosion
of
the
shuttle,
which
had
a
crew
of
Sep.
Sherwood
Boehlert,
R-Utica,
a
memrisk.
That
risk
is
taken
by
each
one
of
us
1
bet of the House committee, agreed.
'
every day, and that risk is understood by seven.
"The Irish people and government share the profound shock
''What you're going to see is the most all the members of a crew whoclimb into a
and sadness of the American people at the tragic accident to the
serious, thorough investigation possible by loaded spaceship."
the government," Boehlert said.
Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, D-N.Y., space shuttle Challenger and the loss of its crew," Fitzgerald
Fuqua, Boehlert and other committee
members insisted that a House probe does
notimply that congressmen lack confidence in NASA's ability to investigate the
disaster, nor does it mean that congressipnal oversight of the space program has
been
lax.
•^
•
} fiep. Harold Volkmer, D-Mo,, said he had
no doubt the space program would continue, although he predicted Congress will
re-view the decision to allow civilians
aboard the shuttles.
Rep. Mervin pymally, D-Calif., head of
the congressional science and technology
caucus, said NASA seems to be "too rigid
with their schedule. I think they put themsejves under too much pressure,"
^ In the meantime, It was a day of sorrow
op .Capitol Hill as elsewhere across the
cpuntry,
^ Rep. Bill Nelson, D*Fla., who flew this
rabpth, gave a speech on the Rouse floor,
his voice straining, but not breaking, and
Helen Keller's writing.
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called Tuesday's disaster "a shocking comment and a horrible reminder of the courage and dedication of the men and women
who venture into space."
, '. *
Rep. George Wortley, R-£ayettevUle,
said, "I share the shock and sadness of all
Americans over the loss of the brave Challenger crew. The crew members will be
remembered in history with America's
greatest heroes."
Wortley and Boehlert professed their
continued support of the space program.
"The space program has been very bene*
to mankind," Boehlert said.
Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Ma$s», recalled
the words of his late brother, President
John Kennedy, on America's first manned
spaceflight: "It will not be one, man going
to ther; moon — it will be an entire naUcn.' . _ . . , ,
;.
"Seven brave astronauts, pursuing that
dream were apparently killed today - and
our entire nation has been wounded," Kennedy said.
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President Pays Homage to Challenger's Crew
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(Continued from Page A-l)
moved and impressed us for decades and
"I've always had great faith in and re- we know
of your anguish/ " the president
4
spect for our space program. And what said." We share it.'"
happened today does nothing to diminish
White House spokesman Larry Speakes
it/' Reagan said.
told reporters he had not heard the presi" ....We'll continue our quest in space. dent "express any regret" he had sent the
There will be more shuttle flights and Challenger on its unsuccessful mission.
more shuttle crews and yes, more volun"Concern, yes; deep emotion, yes; sorteers, more civilians, more teachers in row, yes —but regret is not that," Speakes
space. Nothing ends here. Our hopes and said in reaffirming Reagan's support of the
our journeys continue."
program.
In his speech the president voiced his
Meeting with television reporters for
grief for "the tragedy of the shuttle Chal- what had been scheduled as a briefing on
lenger" but expressed his confidence in the State of the Union address, Reagan said
those in charge of the U.S. space pro* the space program had seemed so safe
gram.
after 56 flights that Americans had "gotten
" ...I wish I could talk to every man and a little impatient when some flights had
woman who works for NASA or who been aborted and.Jt seems as if they were
worked on this mission and tell them, 'Your taking things too seriously.
dedication and professionalism have
"Now we know they weren't/' Reagan
continued. "And so I'm confident that there
will be no flight until they are absolutely as
certain as a human being can be that it is
safe/'
In this meeting Reagan said he did not
expect a public backlash against the space
program because of the tragedy.
"We have accidents in every line of
transportation, and we don't do away with
those things," Reagan said. "They've probably got a better safety record (in the space
program) than we have on the highways."
Reagan, who was described by aides as
somber and silent during much of the day,
said "I can't get out of my mind" the husband and children of Christa McAuliffe, the
teacher killed with six other shuttle crew
members Tuesdayin the Challenger explosion. He had planned to mention her in his
State of the Union speech.
THE POST-STANDARD/Wednesday, Jan. 29,1986/PAG* A-5
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Teachers Shocked
But
Reapply
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By ELIZABETH DORAN
And STEVE GARLIC
Alone in his West Genesee High School
classroom, science teacher Michael Cost
skipped lunch to watch what could have
been his rocket ride to fame. Instead,
he saw another teacher's flight to disaster.
Cost was one of several Central New
York teachers who applied to be the first
teacher to ride into orbit aboard the illfated space shuttle Challenger.
Nationwide, more than 10,000 people
vied to become the first teacher in space. It
was an honor that went to Christa McAuliffe of (toward, N.H.
In the aftermath of Tuesday's tragedy,
local teachers said they would have no
qualms about applying again.
Cost, whowatched the horror unfold iq a
flash of television blue, said he was
shocked speechless.
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UPI Telephoto
Concord, N.H. High School students kneel in prayer at St. Peter's Roman Catholic Church during a special service
for Concord teacher Christa McAuliffe, who died in Tuesday's explosion of the space shuttle Challenger.
-
Risk Didn't Frighten Her
learned where everything was: the galley, sleeping quarters, hatches, toilet.
They went through an adult kind of
"potty" training. They learned to operate the television camera, which was to
be used in the lessons McAuliffe would
have conducted.
After a few weeks, McAuliffe joined
the full crew for simulations of critical
phases of the flight. "I was just there to
see how to keep out of the way and see
what kinds of problems might occur. You
get used to the lights and buzzers that go
off, so you won't panic when they dp."
New York Times
"It's such a quantum leap from what
my life has been like," Christa McAuliffe
was saying. A frown shadowed her brow.
It was the frown of recurring disbelief,
not of worry.
So much had. happened since July,
when she was chosen from 11,000 schoolteacher applicants to be the first "private citizen" to fly in space. There was
the White House ceremony, the ohslaughfc of reporters and television cameras, the hometown parade.' Then came the exchange of her high
school classroom for the high-tech simulators at Houston's Johnson Space Center and the moment she stood on the
launching pad at Cape Canaveral and got
a close look at the space shuttle Challenger, which was to carry, her, a 37-'
year-old teacher from Concord, N.H.,
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into orbit.
"It just didn't hit home that the
rockets are going to go off and I'm going,
to be 200 miles up in space. It still doesn't
seem
possible," the mother of two
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called.
Yet, by all accounts, McAuliffe had
handled the quantum leap with aplomb
and delight. She had just experienced
weightlessness: the KC-135 climbed to a
crest and then went into a headlong
plunge. There she was, walking on the
ceiling, then floating in the cabin like Superman. The experience can be euphoric
and sometimes nauseating, which is why
the training plane is called the "vomit
comet." Her trainers said she came
through like a fully fledged astronaut.
This had pleased McAuliffe. The
teacher who had arrived at the space
center with some apprehension — would
the regular astronauts dismiss her as
extra baggage? — was being accepted.
Even so, she was under no illusions. She
might have dressed and trained like an
astronaut, but she had insisted that she
remain a teacher first.
•
Any doubt about this was dispelled at
lunch one day when a waitress asked for
her autograph. Christa complied, laughing. "When I do many of these," she said,
"it reminds me of writing hall passes
in school."
The National Aeronautics-and Space
Administration expects to include private citizens on other flights to communicate the space experience from nontechnical perspectives. Applications are
being reviewed for a journalist to be the
second citizen passenger, probably on a
flight next fall. In time, poets, painters,
laborers, musicians and others will get
to fly.
In August 1984, President Reagan decided the first in the program should be a
teacher. In 11-page applications, teachers explained why they wanted to go into
space and how they would make use of
the experience. •
The Council of Chief State School Officers, with NASA, selected 114 teachers
to interview. The field was narrowed to
10;after medical and psychological tests
and more interviews, McAuliffe came
out on top. Runner-up, and her backup
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for the flight, was Barbara Radding
Morgan, a 34-year-old second-grade
teacheriroih'lM^lall, Idaho.
Although Christa had no idea why she
was selected, the wholesome, familyoriented, small-town aspect of her background surely was appealing to imageconscious NASA. .She herself called Concord a "Norman Rockwell kind of
place."
Sharon Christa Corrigan was born
Sept. 2,1948, in Boston. After receiving
her bachelor's degree in 1970, she taught
American history in Maryland, where
she lived with her husband, Steven
McAuliffe. When he completed law
school and she earned a master's degree
in education, they moved to Concord,
where he established a law practice and
she taught high school. In her history
course, colleagues said, she taught that
the experience of ordinary people is as
proper a subject as the chronicles of
wars and politicians.
This may have been key to her selection. NASA wanted someone to impart
the human side of space travel. In her
application, McAuliffe said she would
keep a diary in which she would "humanize" the experience: "I want to demystify
NASA and space flight."
Although she would not divulge the
diary's contents until after her flight, the
account will no doubt reflect her impressions of training. When she arrived
at the Johnson Space Center, she and
Barbara Morgan were issued their flight
gear. All dressed up, they met the shuttle
crew and had their official pictures
taken.
Francis "Dick" Scobee, the mission
commander, sought to reassure McAuliffe: "No matter what happens on this
mission, it's going to be known as the
teacher mission. We feel that's good, because people will remember what we
do."
Then the teachers listened to hours of
briefings and were given a pile of workbooks. .In a mockup of the cabin, they
¥
Even though McAuliffe was the first
"citizen" passenger, other non-astronauts have made flights, including Sen.
Jake Garn, a member of a committee that oversees NASA, an Arab prince
and a Mexican engineer, who went along
with payloads for their countries. Gregory Jarvis, a Hughes Aircraft engineer,
was also on the flight with McAuliffe.
"The things we go through are what
any ordinary person could go through,"
McAuliffe said during a training break.
Civilians cannot have a chronic condition, such as diabetes, that might disrupt
^the mission, but their medical examinations are not nearly as stringent as those
for shuttle pilots. Sight and hearing can
be less than perfect, muscles need not be
athletic.
McAuliffe was a sturdy woman, 128
pounds and 5 feet 6 inches tall. Although
she ran a few miles most days, she said
she worried about her stamina in the selection competition: "I wanted to make
sure I didn't fall off the treadmill."
She professed to have no fear of the
mission: "I realize there is a risk outside
your everyday life, but it doesn't frighten
me." Still, her life.insurance policy had
been canceled.
For McAuliffe, the hardest adjustment was the separation from her family. Once they visited her, touring the
space center and meeting astronauts.
When Mc^uliffe asked her two children
what they liked most, Caroline singled
out the tuna fish in the cafeteria, and
Scott mentioned the batting cage down
the street, "In a way it's good that kids do
that," she said. "Why should a 9-year-old
and a 6-year-old be in awe?"
On the sixth day of the mission, McAuliffe was to televise two lessons for students in classrooms across the country.
In the first, called "The Ultimate Field
Trip," McAuliffe was to give a tour of the
shuttle and discuss, the astronauts' jobs.
The second, "Where We've Been, Where
We're Going, Why?" would have examined the motivations and uses of space
exploration. The Public Broadcasting
Service was to transmit the lessons live.
"It's good to step outside of the usual
and look at yourself and your job,"
McAuliffe said one evening. The frown of
disbelief had vanished. She had laughed
at herself, the teacher she saw in some
pictures who was in an airplane doing
things astronauts do. "But I'll be ready to
get back to teaching. Kids have a wonderful way of bringing you back to reality."
Later, he said he played a videotape of
the disaster for his 12th-grade advanced
biology class.
"The kids sort of wandered in the room
while I was watching it, and there was sort
of a stunned silence," Cost said. "Then they
talked in short, terse statements. My students expressed concerns about the delay
and wondered if the takeoff might have
been rushed. They wondered if sabotage
could have been involved. They also expressed concern for the woman's children.
"Being a teacher, I can picture howkids
would feel watching that. This was such a
symbolic flight. Here you have all these
children all over watching this, and what
do they see?
"I'm not so sure how deep an impact this
has on them," he said. "They understand
the personal tragedy. But I know exactly
where I was when John F. Kennedy was
shot, and I don't think they'll remember
exactly where they were when the space
shuttle blew up."
Cost, 32, said the younger children were
curious about it and wanted to see the
videotape teplay. As of mid-afternoon, he
said, no announcement had been made at
the school and he didn't think many students knew about it.
He added that he couldn*t believe the
tragedy happened with McAuliffe on
board. "It's a real strange quirk of fate that
the teacher was there. Here you obviously
have a very dedicated teacher, and something like, this has to happen that-day. It's
unfair in a lot'of ways."
For Barbarajean Metevia, an art
teacher at two elementary schools in Watertown who applied for the mission, the
tragedy had a special impact. As a kind of
family joke, her husband and children for
months had carried on as if she had been
selected instead of McAuliffe.
For instance, whenever McAuliffe appeared on television in a news report about
the Challenger's upcoming mission, Metevia's husband would announce that
"Mommy" was in the news again and that
"Mommy," and not McAuliffe, was counting down the days for liftoff.
Metevia, 35, wanted to ride in the space
It's a terrible tragedy
and so unexpected.
My first reaction was I
thought to myself,
'Would I go up'?' But
this doesn't change
my opinion one bit. I'd
be willing to go up tomorrow.
— Noel Van Swol•
East Syracuse-Minoa teacher
shuttle because she has an interest in space
research and because she thinks an art :
teacher would have been a good choice for
the mission. She said she was pleased, how-;: *•
ever, when McAuliffe was selected to fly> •*
"She was.a* perfect choice," Metevia ;
said. "I hoped they would pick somebody * *
with the right stuff — somebody sparkling,
somebody with appeal, somebody with alT '
of the things it takes to be a good*
teacher."
Noel Van Swol, 43, a teacher at East.r
Syracuse-Minoa High School, said, "It's a ^ •
terrible tragedy and so unexpected. My
first reaction was I thought to myself; :
'Would I go up?' But this doesn't change my" •
opinion one bit. I'd be willing to go ftp.
tomorrow.
"It's a shock and a national tragedy. Bdr;k
any astronauts and volunteers who wanted"
to fly aboard the shuttle were aware of the * '*
risks and were willing to make the sa6rl- ^
fices. With any pioneering thing like this,";
risks are always involved," he said.
" V
At Lakeland Elementary School, fourth-- ;:
grade teacher Richard Lauricella, 48, saiicf
he saw the explosion on the noon news. The
children who heard about it, he said, "told; •
me I was lucky."
_
J;'' Nonetheless, he plans to reapply. "It's
very tragic, but no matter what you do, '
whether it's the space program or another '
adventure, you still have adversity. That's,
?
the chance you take.!'
T
Eagle Hill Middle School science teacher';
Gloria-Mabie, 48, said: "It was just like the';
bottom fell out. I was extremely shocked "
and felt absolutely terrible.-! didn't feel/'
'Thank God I wasn't selected/ I felt it
would have been better if it had been nie/
She has such young children."
Mabie said she talked with two eighth- ;;;
grade science classes, and the explosibn
was all they wanted to discuss. "I don't
think I've ever seen our students so washed*"'
out. They're really upset. They've all become a little invested in the program'. I
watched Challenger being launched at tjie
end of October, and I shared all that infor-; •
mation with them. When you build them iip*
like this, and for it to end in disaster.
Some of the kids had tears in their eyes."[ •'
Lesson in Tragedy
For Young Students
By PATRICIA CAPPON
Around noontime, math lab teacher
Mary Anne Nastri learned the awful truth.
As she told her class, her eyes filled with
tears, tears that never fell. The children
saw them anyway.
"I told them there had been a terrible
tragedy," Nastri said. "I explained that a
teacher had been with the crew, and that
after it went up, it exploded. They said,
'That could have been one of our teachers.' "
In this way, solemn voices carried word
of Challenger's grim flight to the classrooms of Danforth Magnet School on West
Brighton Avenue in Syracuse.
Near the end of the day, principal Gene
Hannah asked all students to stand for a
moment of silence. Until that announcement, teacher Jon Holloway had chosen
not to tell his third-graders about the failed
launch. He knew too few details, he said,
and. was unsure whether the news would
upset the children.
Nastri knew there would be a televised
replay. Ten-year-old Margaret Shoots and
,v
the others in her class asked Nastri if
could watch the news with her. "I felt sorry
for the teacher's students because, if it
were their parents, they wouldn't want,
them to die," Shoots said..,
" • r
As news of the tragedy reached them,
other teachers began flipping on the television sets. Small hands shot up in Joanr Vilello's third-grade class. Nine-year-old
William Shanahan asked his teacher,
whether the space shuttle had sped beyond.
gravity's grasp. What about the astronaut's'
families? What about McAuliffe's students?
1.;
McAuliffe's smiling face looked out
from the pages of their Weekly Readers.
just last week. In class, they had learned i
that the first teacher in space would cop-.
duct two school lessons from a special
classroom on the shuttle.
".It seems so sad because one was.a;
teacher," said third-grader Jessica Hundley. "She taught social studies, and she
wanted to teach her kids by going up in
space. I feel bad for the other people in the.
shuttle. They probably had kids, too.!' .
The Cheers Turned to Silence in Classrooms across the Country
•
News Service Reports
CONCORD, N.H. - Within seconds, a
party died in silence as hundreds of Christa
McAuliffe's friends, students and colleagues watched the shuttle Challenger
blast off Tuesday and then explode.
The 37-year-old teacher's long-awaited
launch was watched in classrooms
throughout Concord High School, where
she taught social studies and law and
planned to return to teach in the fall.
About 200 pupils and teachers watching
a television set in the auditorium counted
down the last 10 seconds to launch and
clieered wildly as the shuttle's engines
blasted the craft toward space.
Students continued to cheer and blow
their party horns for only a few seconds,
until someone yelled, "Damn it! There's a
major malfunction. Shut up so we can
hear."
Only the sound of NASA reports from the
television filled the room as the students
and teachers sat stunned, news television
cameras filming their shock.
The scene was repeated in other schools
throughout the nation, where an estimated
2.5 million students viewed the liftoff.
School districts in thousands of communities had required their students to watch
the Challenger liftoff and to monitor its
progress over the next week as part of
Classroom Earth, the first educational program designed to provide students with a
first-hand look at America's space program.
Walter Westrum, superintendent of Hall
High School in Spring Valley, III, and executive director of the project that brought
live pictures of the shuttle to schools all
over the country, rose to face his students.
"Hush down," he began uncertainly.
"What we're seeing is, apparently, it's hard
to believe, but it looks like those people
have just exploded in mid-air."
A few moments later he added: "This is
not some make-believe world, not 'Miami
Vice,' not entertainment you're looking at
These people are not coming back. They
are wherever they are — and the dream
that went with them is temporarily gone."
"Some of the kids just turned away from*
the television unable to watch," said
Wayne Peterson, principal of Viking Elementary School in Grand Forks, N.D., the
first school in the nation to take part in
the Young Astronaut program, designed to
spur interest in space careers.
schoolchildren and teachers was extraordi*-;
nary, and it suggested the range of their
feelings.— from jealousy that they were
not part of the mission before the flight
took off to relief that they were not victiiris
after the crash occurred, to enormous grief
* The McAuliffe loss was the second trag- for the crew and their families.
edy experienced by Concord High School
But the identification with McAuliffe
since Dec. 12, when a high school dropout was universal. McAuliffe was more th*n
armed with a shotgun was killed by police an ordinary astronaut. She was mother,
in a school hallwayafter tatting two pupils wife and teacher.
for the day and later canceled today's session to allow the staff to meet with school
counselors. Some pupils sought help from
counselors Tuesday to deal with the emotional aftermath of the shuttle's explosion,
he said.
hostage.
A/ter the explosion, McAuliffe's colleagues stood in shock, and students, whispered to each other and to themselves,
"This isn't real is it? This can't be happening?"
"People were s6 high up and now they're
"We have a lot of stunned students all
down so low," said 16-year-old Craig Burover the'United States," Peterson said.
At McAuliffe's Concord High School, bank of Concord.
The emotional reactions from both
Principal Charles Foley dismissed classes
; " / "
Dr. William Chambers, director of pediatric psychiatry at New York's Columbia*
Presbyterian Hospital, agreed that for
children, losing a teacher can sometimes
be almost as significant as the death of a
parent. "Each kid extrapolates what it
means to him," he said, "but 'with some
kids, it confirms their worst fears that the'
black knight wins."