Author’s Note

The Challenger launch was not originally scheduled to be Tuesday, January 28, as it is in the book. In reality, the launch date was postponed several times. The morning of the launch, some of those working on the mission believed it was too cold to proceed, but since there had already been multiple delays, NASA decided to go on despite the warnings. NBC (airing live from Los Angeles) reported that icicles had formed on the shuttle but were presumed to have broken off upon lift-off. Just before the explosion, the news announcer said the astronauts would “check on (the icicle situation) later.”

A few crew members working on the launch weren’t sure Challenger would even take off. They rejoiced when the shuttle “made it,” but 73 seconds after takeoff, the craft broke apart. Though announcers and TV viewers thought it had exploded, people watching from the ground heard not a boom but silence as the engines stopped running. The shuttle’s fuel tank tore apart, which is what caused the huge fireball and smoke. The cause of the disaster was found primarily to be the failure of two rubber O-rings that had been used to separate sections of the rocket booster. Both O-rings failed due to cold, which means the accident was not only preventable, but something NASA experts had worried about prior to launch.

The tragedy aired on live television and was seen by children in many school classrooms like Nova’s.

“Sometimes when we reach for the stars, we fall short, but we must pick ourselves up again and press on despite the pain….We can find consolation only in faith, for we know in our heart that you who flew so high, and so proud, will make your home beyond the stars.”

—PRESIDENT RONALD REAGAN AT THE CHALLENGER MEMORIAL SERVICE, FEBRUARY 1, 1986

The loss of the space shuttle Challenger halted the US space program for over two years, but in 2007, Barbara Morgan, who had been runner-up to Christa McAuliffe in the Educator Astronaut contest, became the first teacher in space. Morgan studied for nearly a decade after Challenger to become an astronaut. She was a standard Mission Specialist and licensed amateur radio operator. Three weeks after returning from her successful first trip into space, she told a group of students at Walt Disney World, “Reach for your dreams…the sky is no limit.” Those words are now etched into a plaque on a wall of Mission: Space beside McAuliffe’s quote, which begins, “Space is for everybody.”