The Challenger series: reflecting on the ’80s and the life of Christa McAuliffe

Sarah Daponde

Asst. Arts & Features Editor

Gatepost Archives

The Christa McAuliffe Center hosted “The Challenger Disaster and its Historical Context” on Feb. 4 over Zoom. This was the second event in the three-part Challenger series honoring the 40th anniversary of the accident. The series aims to spark conversations on the key moments of FSU alum Christa McAuliffe’s life, examine the historic context of the 1980s, and reflect on lessons learned from the tragedy. Irene Porro, director of The McAuliffe Center, introduced the guest speakers for the event - Jennifer Levasseur, space history curator of the National Air and Space Museum, and Jon Huibregtse, professor emeritus of history at Framingham State University. Huibregtse began the event by giving a brief overview of significant cultural and political “snapshots” of the 1980s. The first snapshot he discussed was the American economy. He said the decade was prosperous for upper- and middle-class Americans. However, because the United States lost approximately 2 million manufacturing jobs during the 1980s, it was a difficult time for blue-collar workers. The second snapshot Huibregtse shared was of the Cold War. “The Cold War loomed large over the nation, but we had lived with it for so long - many of us our entire lives - that we didn’t give it really much thought anymore,” Huibregtse added. The third snapshot he discussed was of the AIDS epidemic. The CDC first reported on cases of HIV/AIDS in 1981, but President Ronald Reagan did not give a major speech on the illness until 1987, by which time Huibregtse said AIDS activism was in full swing. Lastly, Huibregtse shared a snapshot from sports during this decade, including the Celtics entering the NBA finals five times during the 1980s with their “Hall of Fame Trio” - Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, and Robert Parrish. Levasseur led the second half of the discussion. “I’ve been the spatial curator here at the National Air and Space Museum for the last five and a half years, but my story, like most people my age, goes back much farther than that in terms of the Challenger,” said Levasseur. Levasseur said, as a child growing up near Toledo, Ohio, home of astronaut and U.S. Sen. John Glenn, she was always very aware of the space program, especially after the Challenger. “I was like many students sitting in front of a television, the morning of Jan. 28, 1986, watching all of this on television,” she added. She said she was excited to go to school that morning and see a teacher launch into space. Even though the launch had been delayed several times already, Levasseur said she remembered thinking, “today is going to be the day. “It wasn’t something just in my memory - it was in the memory of an entire generation of school children,” Levasseur added. In addition to McAuliffe, the other crew members on board the Challenger were Commander Francis Scobee, Pilot Michael Smith, Mission Specialists Judith Resnik, Ronald McNair, Ellison S. Onizuka, and Payload Specialist Gregory B. Jarvis. “These individuals, and as a group, represent a really unique moment in time - in 1978, NASA had selected a new group of astronauts,” she said. She said NASA wanted to put different people in space, not only in terms of their profession, but also in terms of backgrounds, gender, and ethnicity. Prior to 1981, all missions included only pilots, and only white men. The Challenger crew included the first Asian American, the first Jewish American, one of the first three African Americans, and two of the first six women to become astronauts. McAuliffe was selected to join the crew from the “Teacher in Space” project. Barbara Morgan was the runnerup to McAuliffe and did end up traveling to space after the Challenger accident, she added. Levasseur said the disaster happened only 73 seconds into the launch of the Challenger space shuttle. “And most of us, as third-graders, had absolutely no idea what just happened,” Levasseur said. “Our teachers, likewise, did not know what was happening. They couldn’t explain it to us.” She said the losses of both the Challenger and Columbia space shuttles were due to overlooked issues, including concerns with the rocket boosters and heat shields. Levasseur said there were hundreds of thousands of people helping with the orbiter from around the country and she said they were all deeply affected by the loss of the Challenger. “When you talk to astronauts, that's who they talk about. They really are members of the family,” she added. “The orbiter is almost like a child of theirs.”