The Astronauts Memorial Foundation and the Space Mirror, founded after Challenger
The Astronauts Memorial Foundation was created after the Challenger accident of January 28, 1986. Its Space Mirror Memorial at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex was dedicated on May 9, 1991, and now carries 25 names. The foundation's Center for Space Education followed in 1994.
The Astronauts Memorial Foundation was created after the loss of the Space Shuttle Challenger in 1986, according to the foundation itself, so that the names of astronauts killed in the space program would not be forgotten. Its memorial, the Space Mirror, stands at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.
Challenger
Challenger lifted off on mission 51-L on January 28, 1986, and the flight ended 73 seconds later. The presidential commission that investigated the accident lists the crew: commander Francis R. (Dick) Scobee, pilot Michael J. Smith, mission specialists Ellison S. Onizuka, Judith A. Resnik and Ronald E. McNair, and two payload specialists added to the crew, Christa McAuliffe and Gregory B. Jarvis. McAuliffe, selected as the Teacher in Space, was to conduct a series of classroom lessons from orbit.
The Space Mirror
The memorial was dedicated on May 9, 1991. The foundation’s site quotes Vice President Dan Quayle at the dedication: “Today and forever, the Space Mirror will send their names into the heavens as a reminder that these were pioneers who helped lead America into space.”
Today, the foundation says, 25 names are etched in the granite, lit 24 hours a day. They begin before Challenger: the foundation’s list includes Theodore C. Freeman, killed when the T-38 he was flying crashed at Ellington Air Force Base on October 31, 1964, and Elliot M. See Jr. and Charles A. Bassett II, killed together in a T-38 crash in bad weather while flying to a McDonnell Aircraft facility in St. Louis for training. The foundation also now honors crew members of commercial flights approved by the Federal Aviation Administration.
The Center for Space Education
In 1994 the foundation established the Center for Space Education as what it calls a “living memorial.” The center runs programs for students and teachers and works with NASA to give participants free access to the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.
The town’s own story of the space program, from the first astronauts on, is on Old Cocoa Beach’s history page.
Further Reading
- The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe
- Live from Cape Canaveral: Covering the Space Race by Jay Barbree
Sources
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