A Fateful Day

NASA recalls darkest moments

The space shuttle Challenger STS-51L spaceflight ended in tragedy on Jan. 28, 1986, 73 seconds after liftoff. Seven astronauts died that day, when the Challenger space shuttle was destroyed.

It was NASA's first in-flight calamity, and it dealt an especially severe blow to the millions of teachers and students watching on TV to see Christa McAuliffe, a civilian high school teacher from New Hampshire, become NASA's first Teacher in Space.

Today is the 25 year anniversary of that fateful day.

The loss of Challenger was later attributed to a failed seal on one of the space shuttle's solid rocket boosters. An investigation board concluded that cold weather prevented a rubber O-ring from maintaining its seal, allowing hot gas to leak and damage the shuttle's external fuel tank and the hardware attaching the booster to the vehicle. The right solid rocket booster separated from the shuttle, and the fuel tank broke apart, causing the orbiter to be torn apart by aerodynamic stresses.

"The problem was a design flaw, complicated by the weather situation which was unrecognized at the time by the appropriate managers," Hale said. "We wished that we had the foresight to stand up collectively and say, 'Look, it's too cold a day to launch, we just ought to wait for a warmer day.' In retrospect it seems so simple; at the time, it just didn't happen."

Veteran shuttle astronaut Ron Garan, who is slated to fly to the International Space Station in March aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft, said the anniversaries of Challenger and the other accidents highlight the lessons learned from those events. "It's a time to reflect and it's a time to remember those people who have sacrificed to get us where we are," Garan told SPACE.com. "A lot of the lessons learned in this business are written in blood, and if we don't learn from them, those people died in vain."

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So where were you on that day? Were you watching from a classroom like many students?

Kaye Manro
(crossed posted from my blog)

The Best Day Job in the Universe - The Joy of Teaching

Last week I introduced you to the fun of my job. Playing with starship simulators is definitely entertaining, but the real power of my job comes from the teaching. It's a lot like writing except the payoff is more immediate.

How do you feel when a fan contacts you to tell you they loved your book? Warm fuzzies all over. Knowing you have touched a child's mind is powerful. We as writers are long-distance teachers. We say we're just providing entertainment, but think about what's buried in your story. What lessons are you teaching your readers? Compassion? Loyalty? Persistence? Look at what your characters value. Look at what they do to finally win against the odds. Those are the lessons you teach through your writing.

I'm a teacher, by training and profession. At the space center, I run our planetarium and write the lesson plans we use for the field trip groups. The best pay for my job is hearing the kids whispering in the planetarium, pointing out the stars to their friends. I love sharing my passion for astronomy. It's powerful when you make a connection with someone. Listen to the awe in their voices on their first time seeing the wonders of space, finding a constellation, or just plain looking up at night. I'm opening their eyes to the glory and beauty that exists all around us.

Three of us teach at the center. We had a huge discussion a couple years ago about the objective of our lessons. Teachers usually teach for comprehension and understanding. Repetition is key to that kind of teaching. We had an epiphany as we discussed our upcoming lesson for the school year. We weren't teaching for comprehension. Our whole objective was to throw information at the children as fast as we could. We wanted even the brightest student in the class to leave with more questions than answers. We wanted them to glimpse how much we didn't know yet about space and time and physics. We pushed those little 5th and 6th graders clear into college physics on a regular basis. With only 45 minutes at best, we can't teach a topic for comprehension. But we can raise questions and introduce concepts.

We pull out all the stops, producing a multimedia presentation with as many experiments and demonstrations and eye-catching decorations as we can finagle. We have to at least pretend to compete with the simulators. Some days, it falls flat. The kids are bored and restless or rude and obnoxious. It happens. But if I touch even one young mind, I have succeeded.

With my writing, it's the same way. We as authors touch one mind at a time. We aren't going to win over every person who reads, but we can touch those who resonate with our stories. We can make a difference one life at a time.

This turned into more of an essay about the power of teaching than one about the space center, but teaching and education are central to what we do at the space center. Even the simulators exist as teaching tools. Most of our staff and customers don't realize it; they think they are there for entertainment. But I know better.

To borrow a quote from Christa McAuliffe, the teacher the center is named after, "I touch the future. I teach."