It was the 1980s and NASA found themselves in trouble. See, back in ’69, the whole world was hooked watching the moon landing. But fast forward ten, fifteen years, and that interest had dried up like the desert. I guess when you’ve already been there once, everything that follows feels like a rerun. People start saying, “Been there, done that. Can we go some place new?”
I guess it’s hard to blame them for feeling that way, but here’s the problem: without taxpayers’s money, the whole show is finished. So, the boys at NASA had to breathe life back into people’s enthusiasm for space exploration. And that’s when they came up with the “Teacher In Space Project.” Let’s send a teacher up into space, that’ll get people exited! And guess what? Eleven thousand teachers applied. They picked one teacher from the bunch. Her name was Christa McAuliffe.
Now, I started digging into her story, and I discovered an interesting tidbit. The night before she’s supposed to be chosen for the space gig, a student shows up at her door, someone she didn’t even teach to. The student admits to feeling suicidal. McAuliffe decides to sit down with her, talking for hours to make sure she was fine. She even offered a bed for the night. With that done and over with, she only had a measly couple of hours of sleep left, before hopping on a plane to Washington for the biggest moment of her life.
Fast forward to January 28, 1986. The day arrives. She straps herself into the Challenger space shuttle. Near the launch site, there’s a crowd watching. Friends, family, parents—everyone’s holdin’ their breath. The shuttle takes off, everything’s looking great… until seventy-three seconds later, when the rocket explodes, ripped apart into a thousand pieces.
Now, I’m not going to bore you with technical explanations, but here’s the gist. Some part of the shuttle was exposed to colder temperatures than it could handle the night before. Some folks at NASA folks said, “Perhaps we shouldn’t launch today.” Others were like, “Eh, what’s the worst that could happen?” – I’m slightly exagerating, but only slightly. Anyways, guess what? Those in charge decided to launch anyway. Fatal mistake.
The investigation that followed showed a number of causes… and feel free to dig deeper if you’re so inclined. But here’s my view on things: the main catalyst of this disaster, was the motivation behind this whole project. Launching a rocket into space shouldn’t be about shiny advertising and positive PR spins. Because when that’s your primary goal, you start making choices that align with it. Safety is no longer your main priority, it’s publicity. It’s only natural. I can’t help but wonder, if their focus wasn’t so fixated on PR, wouldn’t they have caught those problems sooner?
I sure think so.
By the way, lately I’ve been binging this TV series called Lucifer. It’s about the Devil himself, played by Tom Ellis. One of the recurring gimmicks is Lucifer asking everyone the same old question, over and over, “Tell me, what is it that you truly desire?” And let me add my own slightly different twist onto it: What’s your real reason for doing what you’re doing? If you can answer that honestly, my friend, the rest will fall into place. Food for thought.
Regards
Vincent