The 1986 Challenger explosion: These Alabama teachers were almost on board the doomed shuttle
Updated Jan 27, 2021;
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Challenger space shuttle.
“It’s such a quantum leap from what my life has been like,” the 37-year-old mother of two told
It was not to be.
Those children instead watched in horror 35 years ago this week as the
Challenger disintegrated at 10:39 a.m. CST on Jan. 28, 1986. McAuliffe died along with six other crew members, 73 seconds into the shuttle’s flight.
Watching along with a generation of children marked by the tragedy were two Alabama teachers who had signed up, along with more than 100 others across the state, to compete a year earlier as part of NASA’s Teacher in Space program, launched in 1984 by President Reagan.