In many ways, the crew of STS-51L represented a cross section of the American population, and each crew member had a unique story.
We share their stories in "Remembering the Challenger Seven": s.si.edu/2U4EhKU
Before becoming an astronaut, Dick Scobee earned his pilot's wings in the @USAirForce, serving a combat tour in Vietnam and flying over 45 types of aircraft as a test pilot. In 1984 he earned his astronaut wings on STS-41-C.
Michael Smith's path to aeronautics began at the @NavalAcademy. After pilot training, he served as a flight instructor and flew A-6 Intruders in the Vietnam War. After a stint as a Navy test pilot, he became a NASA astronaut and completed training to pilot the space shuttle
Hawaii-born Ellison Onizuka was selected as an astronaut in 1978 after serving on active duty with the @USAirForce for 8 years. He flew in space onboard Space Shuttle Discovery on STS-51C in 1985, becoming the first Asian American in space.
Judith Resnik was selected in NASA's first group of women astronauts in January 1978. When she flew on Discovery's STS-41D mission in 1984 she came the second American woman in orbit and the first Jewish American to fly in space.
Ronald McNair was a trained physicist, earning his Ph.D. in physics at MIT in 1977 and publishing path-breaking scientific papers on laser physics. He flew on Space Shuttle Challenger mission STS-41B in 1984, becoming the second African American in space.
An engineer working for Hughes Aircraft Corp, Gregory Jarvis was accepted into the astronaut program under Hughes' sponsorship. His duties on the spaceflight were to involve gathering new information on the design of liquid-fueled rockets.
Christa McAuliffe would have been the first teacher to fly in space. She was selected from over 11,000 educator applicants for NASA's Teacher in Space Project. She loved space growing up and was to teach lessons from space to inspire that same love in America's schoolchildren.
