The Challenger disaster took place shortly after liftoff on January 28, 1986. Photo / File
The Challenger disaster took place shortly after liftoff on January 28, 1986. Photo / File
Nasa leaders, retired launch directors, families of fallen astronauts and space fans marked the 35th anniversary of the Challenger disaster on Thursday (US time), vowing never to forget the seven who died during liftoff.
The pandemic kept this year's remembrance more muted than usual.
Barely 100 people — all masked and seated or standing far apart — gathered in front of Kennedy Space Centre's Space Mirror Memorial. The late-morning ceremony was held almost exactly the same time as the accident shortly after liftoff on January 28, 1986.
Among the attendees was Donna Smith, visiting from Florida's Gulf Coast to "make sure they're never forgotten". She was a high school student when the crew was lost; the sky was so clear that frigid morning she could see the doomed launch all the way across the state.
The widow of Challenger commander Dick Scobee quietly observed the anniversary from her home in Chattanooga, Tennessee. In a recent interview, June Scobee Rodgers said the presence of teacher Christa McAuliffe on the flight added to the crew's lasting legacy.
Scobee Rodgers, herself a longtime educator, said her husband was assigned the teacher-in-space flight because of her own career. Nasa figured "he would have compassion for a teacher," she told The Associated Press.
Rodgers helped establish the Challenger Centre for Space Science Education in the wake of the accident, along with the other Challenger families. She said that helped all of them heal and "move forward".
"In their loss, somehow, their mission continues in many, many different ways," she said.
Flags flew half-staff at Nasa centres around the country, with small ceremonies also held at Johnson Space Centre in Houston and Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. The US Mint is offering a new commemorative silver dollar honouring McAuliffe.
This year's observance focused on the Challenger crew: McAuliffe, Scobee, Michael Smith, Judith Resnik, Ellison Onizuka, Ronald McNair and Gregory Jarvis. But it also paid tribute to the 18 others whose names are carved into the massive granite mirror at Kennedy's visitor complex.
The Sun illuminates the seven names of the astronauts killed in the 1986 Challenger disaster. Photo / AP
Seven were killed during reentry aboard shuttle Columbia on February 1, 2003. Three died in the Apollo 1 fire on the launch pad on January 27, 1967. Another was killed in a Virgin Galactic test flight in 2014. Plane crashes claimed the rest.
"We honour these heroes and remind ourselves of the lessons that the past continues to teach us," Kennedy's deputy director Janet Petro said.
Petro noted that SpaceX is now flying astronauts to the International Space Station for Nasa, and more new spaceships are on the horizon. Many of the newcomers were not around for the shuttle accidents, she said, and so the hard lessons must be shared.
Retired Army Colonel Cynthia Watkins places a flower at the Space Mirror Memorial. Photo / AP
Poor management and a stifling culture contributed to both shuttle accidents. Challenger was brought down by eroded O-ring seals in the right solid rocket booster, Columbia by a chunk of foam insulation that broke off the fuel tank at liftoff and pierced the left wing.
Retired launch director Mike Leinbach — who was at Kennedy for both shuttle tragedies — said his one wish was for no more names to be added to the memorial.
