50,000 Florida Schoolchildren Honor Challenger, Apollo Dead

About 50,000 schoolchildren honored the seven Challenger crew members Monday, two days before the first anniversary of their deaths, and paid tribute as well to the three Apollo 1 astronauts killed 20 years ago today.

“They meant a lot to all of us,” said Carrie Coultry, a fifth-grader at Challenger 7 Elementary School at Port St. John, near the space center. “It was really bad what happened to the Challenger (but) the space program shouldn’t stop--it should go on.”

President Reagan proclaimed the Challenger anniversary Wednesday a “National Day of Excellence.”

“On Jan. 28, 1986, America lost a great flagship, the space shuttle Challenger,” Reagan said in a statement released Monday in Washington. “Our nation united in grief for the valiant crew and their families in renewed resolve to move ahead with the peaceful exploration of space.”

He said that Challenger symbolized “the spirit of America: optimism and ingenuity, daring and determination. . . .”

Students at 67 Brevard County schools participated in simultaneous ceremonies Monday, hoisting flags dedicated to excellence in education. The flags were similar to one carried aboard Challenger by teacher Sharon Christa McAuliffe.

McAuliffe and her six crew mates--Cmdr. Francis R. (Dick) Scobee, co-pilot Michael J. Smith, Ellison S. Onizuka, Ronald E. McNair, Judith A. Resnik and Gregory B. Jarvis--were killed on Jan. 28, 1986, when the Challenger space shuttle exploded 73 seconds after lifting off.

The first anniversary of the worst disaster in space history comes a day after the 20th anniversary of the Jan. 27, 1967, launch pad fire that killed Apollo astronauts Virgil I. (Gus) Grissom, Roger B. Chaffee and Edward H. White II.