From my personal point of view only — no authority or expertise claimed — here are the folks I’m sorry did not go into orbit aboard a space shuttle.
I wish she had been able to complete her mission, cut tragically short in 1986 on the very brink of space when the shuttle Challenger was lost. Christa was a gifted and dedicated teacher with a flight plan of demonstrations that would have really connected with students, and she would have followed up actively for the rest of her life.
In the mid-1960s, Lawrence was with a team of military astronauts who later transferred to NASA and were to play leading roles in the space shuttle program and beyond. Some became top NASA officials. Lawrence, who would have been the first African-American spaceman, was at the top of this class, had a Ph.D. in chemistry, was fluent in German and was a crackerjack pilot. He died in a plane crash in 1967 when he was instructing another test pilot
By my count, 299 of those shuttle riders were Americans, compared to the 43 Americans who were launched in the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, and Skylab programs. Seven of those fliers from the pre-shuttle space programs also made shuttle flights, so they count twice.
Roughly 90 percent of all Americans who have ever gone into orbit did so in the shuttle program. Despite the size and diversity of this group, there are some additional people I wish we could have seen go into space on the shuttle. There were people who almost got to fly, or should have gotten to fly, or were tragically lost before they could savor space — men and women who would have enhanced the space program's harvest of human experience.
Even in death, she inspired the Challenger Learning Centers, which do a magnificent job of youth outreach — but if she had been able to make her mission, she’d have helped lead the development of such centers and other educational initiatives. American education is the poorer with her absence from the shuttle orbital list.
I wish she had been able to complete her mission, cut tragically short in 1986 on the very brink of space when the shuttle Challenger was lost. Christa was a gifted and dedicated teacher with a flight plan of demonstrations that would have really connected with students, and she would have followed up actively for the rest of her life.
In the mid-1960s, Lawrence was with a team of military astronauts who later transferred to NASA and were to play leading roles in the space shuttle program and beyond. Some became top NASA officials. Lawrence, who would have been the first African-American spaceman, was at the top of this class, had a Ph.D. in chemistry, was fluent in German and was a crackerjack pilot. He died in a plane crash in 1967 when he was instructing another test pilot
By my count, 299 of those shuttle riders were Americans, compared to the 43 Americans who were launched in the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, and Skylab programs. Seven of those fliers from the pre-shuttle space programs also made shuttle flights, so they count twice.
Roughly 90 percent of all Americans who have ever gone into orbit did so in the shuttle program. Despite the size and diversity of this group, there are some additional people I wish we could have seen go into space on the shuttle. There were people who almost got to fly, or should have gotten to fly, or were tragically lost before they could savor space — men and women who would have enhanced the space program's harvest of human experience.
Even in death, she inspired the Challenger Learning Centers, which do a magnificent job of youth outreach — but if she had been able to make her mission, she’d have helped lead the development of such centers and other educational initiatives. American education is the poorer with her absence from the shuttle orbital list.
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