Space Shuttle Challenger - Thirty-two Years Later

Today (January 28th) marks the thirty-second anniversary of the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.  On January 28th, 1986 at 11:39:13 EST, the Challenger broke apart 73 seconds after liftoff when an O-ring in one of the solid rocket boosters failed.  All seven crew members died in the accident.

I remember watching the accident at school.  I was in 5th Grade at the time.  I don't remember if we were supposed to watch the launch or if the teacher brought in a television after the accident happened.

Officially titled STS-51L, this mission of the Challenger was scheduled to be a special one.  STS-51L was carrying a teacher into space.  In 1984, NASA began the Teacher in Space Project (TISP) to inspire students and ignite interest in math, science, and space exploration.  More than 11,000 teachers applied for the program.  Sharon "Christa" McAuliffe was selected to be the first Teacher in Space (with Barbara Morgan as her backup).  McAuliffe (and Morgan) trained for 5 months for the mission.  Once the Challenger reached space, McAuliffe was scheduled to teach two lessons to students back on Earth.  On here return back to Earth, McAuliffe was supposed to go back to teaching in the classroom.

The destruction of the Challenger and the death of seven crew members was a big blow to NASA.  Because of the presence of a non-professional (McAuliffe) on the flight, Challenger had received more press attention than most previous Shuttle flights.  NASA cancelled flights of the remaining Space Shuttles for nearly three years to examine safety issues and determine the cause of the accident.  The Teacher in Space Project was officially replaced with the Educator Astronaut Project in the 1990s.  

Barbara Morgan would eventually make it to space.  She retired from teaching in 1998 and went to work at NASA as a full-time employee.  She flew as a mission specialist on STS-118 in August 2007.

For more information on STS-51L please visit the official NASA website.  Information on Christa McAuliffe and Barbara Morgan can be found on their official NASA bios.

The Space Shuttle Challenger - 32 Years Later

This weekend marks the 32nd anniversary of the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.

On January 28th, 1986 at 11:39:13 EST, the Challenger broke apart 73 seconds after liftoff when an O-ring in one of the solid rocket boosters failed.  All seven crew members died in the accident.

Officially titled STS-51L, this mission of the Challenger was scheduled to be a special one.  STS-51L was carrying a teacher into space.  In 1984, NASA began the Teacher in Space Project (TISP) to inspire students and ignite interest in math, science, and space exploration.  More than 11,000 teachers applied for the program.  Sharon "Christa" McAuliffe was selected to be the first Teacher in Space (with Barbara Morgan as her backup).  McAuliffe (and Morgan) trained for 5 months for the mission.  Once the Challenger reached space, McAuliffe was scheduled to teach two lessons to students back on Earth.  On her return back to Earth, McAuliffe was supposed to go back to teaching in the classroom.

The destruction of the Challenger and the death of seven crew members was a big blow to NASA.  Because of the presence of a non-professional (McAuliffe) on the flight, Challenger had received more press attention than most previous Shuttle flights.  NASA cancelled flights of the remaining Space Shuttles for nearly three years to examine safety issues and determine the cause of the accident.  The Teacher in Space Project was officially replaced with the Educator Astronaut Project in the 1990s.  

Barbara Morgan would eventually make it to space.  She retired from teaching in 1998 and went to work at NASA as a full-time employee.  She flew as a mission specialist on STS-118 in August 2007.  Barbara Morgan retired from NASA in 2010.


Earlier this month NASA announced that astronauts orbiting the Earth in the International Space Station would complete and film several of the lessons that were originally planned to be conducted by McAuliffe aboard the Challenger.

For more information on STS-51L please visit the official NASA website.  Information on Christa McAuliffe and Barbara Morgan can be found on their official NASA bios.

Five years...

Self portrait with beard and mustache icicles (03 January 2018)

Yesterday was the fifth anniversary for this blog.

The first post that I wrote here was an introduction of what I wanted to do in this space: answer questions from students, focus on local nature, and highlight upcoming science and nature events in the local community.  I think I have generally stayed with that focus.

My first "real" post was about how Black-capped Chickadees survive the winter.

In the past five years, I have written nearly a thousand posts.  According to Blogger these posts have been viewed over 300,000 times!

The top 10 posts by page views have been:

     1.  Leaves of three, let it be...  What about leaves of five?
     2.  Soil Particle Sizes - Sand, Silt, and Clay
     3.  Logging Tools Part 1 - Axe and Saw
     4.  Waterproof Fur
     5.  Fungi!
     6.  Dogwood misidentification
     7.  Leaves of Three...  Revisited
     8.  Aquatic Ecology and Mother Earth Week at the Ziibiwing Center
     9.  What's in the woods? - 2, 4 & 5 May 2013
    10.  A tale of two flowers - one native, one alien


In the course of writing all of these posts, I have taken and shared thousands of photographs.  I have been contacted several times about using my photographs in books and one of my photos appeared on the cover of our local phone directory for 2015. Several of my photographs have even won awards in photo contests.

Here are ten of my favorites photos that have appeared on this site, with two pictures from each year.

2013

Pileated Woodpecker - Mission Creek Woodland Park, Mt. Pleasant, MI

Sunset - Old Mission Point Park, Traverse City, MI

2014

Stan Lilley photographs a Wild Calla - Hall's Lake Nature Area, Isabella County, MI

Oak Leaves - Mill Pond Park, Mt. Pleasant, MI

2015

Barred Owl - Mission Creek Woodland Park, Mt. Pleasant, MI

Prairie Dock leaf - Mt Pleasant Discovery Museum Garden, Mt. Pleasant, MI

2016

Grey Tree Frog - Audubon Woods Preserve, Winn, MI

Fun with maple leaves - Vowles Elementary, Mt. Pleasant, MI

2017

Northern Water Snakes - Chipp-A-Waters Park, Mt. Pleasant, MI

Badlands National Park, Interior, SD

What's coming up in 2018?  My plan is to continue frequent blog posts, with a goal of 4 or 5 posts every week during the school year.  I also want to spend more time outdoors so that I have more to write about and more photos to share.  This can actually be a challenge because my job keeps me inside most days.  While I try to never write about something original in every post, I might spend a little time revisiting some of my favorite subjects.

To everyone that has been following along - Thanks!

Gettysburg, Pennsylvania - One Hundred Fifty- One Years ago today

The Soldiers National Monument at the National Cemetery at Gettysburg, PA - near the site of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address

 

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. 

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. 

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Abraham Lincoln
19 November 1863