To go boldly where no man has gone before

They called us the baby boomer generation and I have heard some even call us the atomic generation. I have personally always considered myself the space exploration generation. When the first test rockets were being built by Prof. Werner Von Braun I would scramble for any news that I could get my hands on about what was going on with the US space program. When Pres. John F. Kennedy announced that we would go to the moon and back in this decade (the 1960s) I was ecstatic.

I kept up with the Mercury space program almost religiously. I checked out every book that the Charjean Elementary School library had on space travel and space exploration. I could not get enough of the news about our space program on television. This being the time before videotape, I even used a reel to reel tape sound recorder to record every word and every news special that was on every launch or anything that had to do with our space program. I remember John Glenn's flight like it was yesterday. He had a big round mirror on his chest like a blind spot mirror on a car or truck. I never could figure out what that mirror was for at that time, but it was so that he could see all around the Mercury capsule in the confines and restraints that kept him safe in his death-defying flight.

I also kept up with the Gemini and the Apollo space programs with just as much vigor. When we lost the Apollo astronauts to a fire in their space capsule I was horrified; how could that happen? I will never forget that day ever. The Shuttle program almost became a common occurrence to all of us, but I still listened for every bit of news that came from NASA about these flights, even though it didn't seem to be as pressing a news event anymore.

The unfortunate loss of life of seven Challenger astronauts was a blow to our nation and it broke my heart. Unfortunately, it was not the last of the shuttle tragedies. All of these astronauts’ lives were precious to this nation, their loss will never be forgotten, but one among them will be forever in embroidered into the fabric of our nation. It may have been because she was a teacher and it may have been because we felt the loss that her students felt.

It may have also been that the president of the United States and the news media made such a large event about a teacher going to space. It does not really matter; Christa McAuliffe will now and forever be the one that we think about when anyone talks about the loss of our astronauts or space explorers.

My heroes were always the astronauts that explored space, from the Mercury astronauts all the way to the astronauts of today on the International Space Station.

I will keep you and all future astronauts in my prayers that you are safe on your missions of today and those missions of our descendants that will take in the future as we go boldly where no man or woman has gone before.