NASA’s Space Shuttle Challenger lifted off 40 years ago with an unusual crew. In addition to six astronauts, the mission took flight with a teacher on board.Christa McAuliffe, the first educator selected for a new Teacher in Space Project, said in a news conference before the flight that she believed the mission would “open up the idea that space is for everybody.” With the goal of inspiring students to indulge in scientific curiosity, the crew planned to deploy and retrieve an astronomy experiment to study Halley’s Comet and even teach lessons from orbit during their six-day mission. But it never happened.The spacecraft exploded 73 seconds after launching on January 28, 1986, claiming the lives of Commander Francis R. “Dick” Scobee, Pilot Michael J. Smith, Mission Specialists Judith A. Resnik, Ellison S. Onizuka and Ronald E. McNair, Payload Specialists Gregory B. Jarvis and McAuliffe — as teachers and students glued to TVs in classrooms across the US looked on.Challenger crew members (left to right, front row) Michael J. Smith, Francis R. (Dick) Scobee and Ronald E. McNair, (back row, left to right) Ellison S. Onizuka, Sharon Christa McAuliffe, Gregory Jarvis and Judith A. Resnik pose together in December 1985. – NASAEven after the tragedy, family members of the Challenger astronauts wanted to carry on with a piece of their loved ones’ mission …
