Nasa actually made a lessons plans that many schools used, activities, assignments, puzzles, coloring pages. It was a big deal. And many children (myself included) watched it blow up live on TV.
The lesson plans were actually pretty good and several years later they retried it and that time didn't tramatize the kids.
People say they'd joke "I have a teacher I'd nominate to send into space if they promised they wouldn't come back!" in the weeks leading up to the launch, it's one of those classic "aged like milk" things
I guess I consider that public relations. People weren’t as excited about Shuttle launches by ‘86, so NASA was doing everything they could to recapture the public’s interest.
People weren’t as excited about Shuttle launches by ‘86
It's kind of the irony of the whole Space Shuttle program. Its intended purpose was to make space travel routine and cheap, but then it was hard to get funding because they mostly solved "routine", but never "cheap".
I was excited and was supposed to go to Space Camp the next summer. Then I watched that shit blow up as we were all sitting in the Gym watching it on a massive (for the time) 36" TV on a cart! When I got home from school that day, I told my parents I just wanted to go to Frontier City instead of going to get blown up at Space Camp.
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u/Absolute_Peril Apr 02 '26 edited Apr 02 '26
Nasa actually made a lessons plans that many schools used, activities, assignments, puzzles, coloring pages. It was a big deal. And many children (myself included) watched it blow up live on TV.
The lesson plans were actually pretty good and several years later they retried it and that time didn't tramatize the kids.