I always thought it was in the third grade. And I think I know why… hold on.

January 28, 1986 puts me smack dab in the middle of the fourth grade.

Fourth grade teacher Miss Lord was a new hire. She was young and attractive and most of us had a crush on her. One of my pals and I even signed up for chorus in a feeble attempt to impress her. I was no singer and I was deathly afraid of standing in front of crowds at that age. Love sure does make you do crazy things. More on that later.

An unusal cold snap hit Cape Canaveral on the morning of January 28, 1986. The temperature had risen to 26 °F, and despite concerns from engineers over seal integrity, launch of mission STS-51L occurred at 11:38 AM.

The low temps stiffened up the primary and secondary O-ring seals on the right solid rocket booster. which allowed hot pressurized gases to seep through. This rapid erosion of seal caused the gases to increasingly burn not only through the side of the SRB but also through the aft strut connecting it to the monstrous red external propellant tank, and then into the tank itself. The wobbly SRB now only held by the single fore strut and the collapsing structure of the ET put the shuttle stack into a compromising position. At Mach 1.92 with a pressure of 720 lbs/sq ft against the vehicle, aerodynamic forces tore the orbiter to shreds instantly. At 46,000 feet. 73 seconds after launch.

The now detached solid rocket boosters left corkscrew trails of smoke as they flew uncontrollably until the range safety officer sent the order to destruct.

It is believed the crew of seven survived the breakup. But that loss of module pressure most likely caused loss of consciousness in seconds. The crew cabin striking the ocean surface at 207 MPH two minutes and 45 seconds later was not survivable.

Debris rained down on the Atlantic for over an hour.

All students were called into the auditorium/cafeteria/gym of the Walnutport elementary school. They had wheeled in the AV cart with the huge tube TV and VCR (you know the one). It was a very somber mood amongst the staff. We knew why when they told us the Space Shuttle Challenger had just exploded. Then showed us the video.

What a blow. Space exploration was super cool back in the 80’s. Becoming an astronaut was right up there with daydreams of becoming a rockstar. And Christa McAuliffe as part of the Teacher in Space Project was inspiration to both teacher and student.

I had a die cast matchbox space shuttle at home. It was kept segregated from the other toys in a desk drawer full of other special treasures like arrowheads and neat rocks. I crafted some booster rockets and an external fuel tank for it using cardboard and tape. I’m pretty certain that it was not at all to scale. Then, in a grand gesture of sacrifice, I mounted my prized shuttle to the boosters and tank with tape and connected the whole thing to posterboard. I used markers to write the names of the crew around it:

F. Richard Scobee, commander

Michael J. Smith, pilot

Ronald McNair, mission specialist

Ellison Onizuka, mission specialist

Judith Resnik, mission specialist

Gregory Jarvis, payload specialist

Christa McAuliffe, payload specialist, teacher.

I think I cut out pictures of the crew and got the spellings from a newspaper. I’m trying to remember the details. There are no surviving pictures of this.

I took my creation to school. I am not sure who saw it first but my third grade teacher Mrs. Jones was my biggest cheerleader. Which confused me. I don’t remember her being especially nice and had, in fact, dragged me out of the classroom by my ear quite frequently when I was her student (not an exageration. And not that I was innocent). This is probably why I always thought the Challenger explosion happened in the third grade.

Mrs. Jones was instrumental in getting this tribute piece displayed in the lobby of the school. On a small end table kind of thing where they alway put the small Christmas tree. I was both honored and embarrassed. I didn’t think it was that good.

Looking back, what I find amazing, and maybe what Mrs. Jones saw, was that I had initiated and executed this project all by myself. It wasn’t a school project. It wasn’t encouraged at home. It wasn’t even done to impress Miss. Lord. It was just something I felt compelled to do. And found a way to do it. At nine years old.

A year or so later we returned to school from summer break to find that Miss Lord had married her fiancé Jim and was Now Mrs. Fella. Breaking all our hearts. There’s only so much a kid can take.