Challenger: The Final Flight

In the morning, when my dad picked me up

to go to work at Thiokol,

there was an air that was very heavy.

He was a total and complete wreck.

He said, "We're gonna have a catastrophic event.

Catastrophic."

And he was beating his fists on the dashboard

and on the wheel.

I had never seen my dad be so despondent just driving to work.

He said, "The shuttle is going to explode."

Whenever you're ready, Bobby.

Okay, why don't we all gather over at the...

You gonna do different backgrounds, red and gold?

- Yeah. - Whatever.

Scobee, we'd like to seat you right in the middle.

Okay.

And, Mike, come sit right in the middle.

What later will turn out to be the middle.

- Okay, up on the stool there. Real tall. - Up here?

All the shirts and the jackets and the...

We need the jackets zipped, or you wanna leave 'em...

Why don't we zip 'em up? To about right...

About half-mast.

Casual big smile... Okay.

Christa knew that she was gonna be launching,

and she was really, really excited about it.

We had learned a lot about NASA,

that everything on the mission is critical.

Regardless of who is there to do it, it's mission-critical.

Visors are down for launch, up for reentry.

That's it. We just landed.

Christa McAuliffe looks every inch an astronaut these days,

and her crewmates treat her like one of the gang.

It's a six-person raft, so someone's gotta go.

I feel very fortunate to be on flight with this crew,

but there's a lot of difference between a payload specialist

or a space participant and an astronaut.

I mean, they go through years of training,

and I've had a glimpse of a lot of the things that they've done,

but I do not understand an awful lot that goes on aboard the shuttle.

Dick asked me a lot of questions about flying with a teacher.

"Should I tell them this is a risky business?"

Whereas they were being told it's like a commercial aircraft.

And I said, "By all means."

And he told them. "It is a risk.

This is a test vehicle. It is not an airline."

Dick met with us several times.

He talked about the technological challenges

and how complex this is.

He said, "You know, of all these things that can go wrong,

there are humans involved,

and it's that humans are more likely to make errors

than the equipment," etcetera,

so, uh, he... he really made sure that we under... that we understood that.

My father, Mike Smith, was the pilot of the Challenger.

As the launch approached,

we just started taking father-daughter walks together.

And I did ask him,

"So there's a millionth of a millionth percent chance something will go wrong?"

And he said safety was the number-one priority for the launch,

and I left it at that, and I just went on.

Prior to the launch,

the spouses were cleared by quarantine,

but our children could not see their mothers or fathers.

I remember, my dad, he had snuck out of quarantine,

coming by our house very late at night.

And the fact that he was there was one more acknowledgment that,

you know, this is risky.

I felt that he only did it because there is that uncertainty.

He told me he loved me, told me to take care of, you know,

my sister and my mom while he was gone and that he'd see me soon.

You need all this. This is the equipment that's gonna fly.

Do you wanna change anything? Wanna try it on? Feel free to.

- I think they're big! - You'll fill them out.

You missed it. Here's your list...

The space shuttle Challenger is set for blast off at Cape Canaveral on Sunday.

For six of the astronauts, it's just another day's work,

but, for the seventh, it will be a day like no other.

The preparation is over, the countdown has started.

For school teacher Christa McAuliffe,

the beginning of the adventure of a lifetime is just around the corner.

The adrenaline's flowing.

It was hard sleeping last night.

Dick and the other pilots flew their T-38s out to Kennedy Space Center.

The civilians flew in a NASA aircraft.

Christa and Greg Jarvis flew over with us.

The flight was fun.

There were tables and we could sit across from each other in the tables.

Christa sat across from me.

We sat around joking with each other, and we joked about her tennis shoes

versus the big Brogan boots that the pilots wore.

But she was busy writing letters, notes to her students.

She was a serious teacher.

Every moment was dedicated to teaching.

She had all the pressure of the media,

all the pressure of being ready to fly,

but she was still writing letters of recommendation

for two of her students.

That was Christa, you know, taking time out of everything else

and making sure that those letters were written.

So we called her the write, W-R-I-T-E, "the write stuff..."

is what Christa was.

The 51L crew landed at the shuttle landing facility at Kennedy Space Center

where they were going to be doing last-minute training and preparations.

We'd brought them over for a press conference before that happened.

Good afternoon.

I'd like to introduce to you the commander of STS 51L, Commander Dick Scobee.

As usual, it's a real pleasure to be at the Cape to come down here

and participate in something the Cape does better than anybody,

and that's launching space vehicles.

We expect weather like this on Sunday when we launch,

and do the best to keep it that way if you would.

I'd like to introduce my pilot, Mike Smith.

Thanks, Dick. I'm one of the three people on board who...

and it'll be my first time to fly.

Christa McAuliffe and Greg Jarvis, will all... It'll also be their first time,

and we're just all looking forward to getting into orbit

and getting the secret handshake.

I am hoping that the affliction that Steve Hawley had

from the 41D mission,

mission specialist of the delays, hasn't rubbed off on me,

and I think the guys behind me are hoping that it hasn't also.

The mission is a great mission.

We're looking forward to it, and I think we're ready to go fly.

I had the privilege of being a part of the crew a couple years ago

that made the first landing here at the Cape,

and I intend to be a part of the crew

to make the first return landing to the Cape.

I'm very proud to be part of the program that NASA and Hughes have put together,

and I'm glad to represent the Hughes Aircraft Company as payload specialist.

I don't think any teacher has ever been more ready to have two lessons in my life.

I've been preparing these since September,

and I just hope everybody tunes in on day four now

to watch the teacher teaching from space.

After the press conference,

one of the traditions of the crew getting ready for launch

is going out to the beach house out there on the Atlantic Ocean

and spending some time with their families.

The beach house is just a funky house

way on a beach far away from everything else.

It's very low-key.

It's got orange, faux-leather furniture inside,

and a barbecue, and it's just, you know, big windows facing the ocean.

This was a great group.

We'd been working together, planning what we would do while we were in Florida.

And so we were bonded.

I took pictures of each couple.

Someone took a picture of me and Dick.

He always had his arm around me,

but I remember that day, I had my arm around him,

which was one of the only pictures ever of us, uh, taken that way.

Parents began coming in.

And we got to meet everybody.

We had the picnic and ate.

There was kind of a family reunion.

And then there was a quiet time.

And Dick said, "Let's take a walk on the beach."

It was a cool day.

It wasn't a warm, Florida sunshine-y day.

Dick walked as far as he could see the shuttle,

and he looked at it and he said, "That's home away from home for a while."

And then he turned and started singing a song.

"For you are beautiful, and I love you more than words can say."

And I kept hearing those words in my mind.

It was the song "The Last Farewell."

And it was kind of a goodbye.

We loved each other so much. We'd been married for 26 years.

The countdown is underway tonight at Cape Canaveral

toward Sunday's scheduled launch of the shuttle Challenger,

a liftoff that will carry America's first teacher into space.

I was at the Cape for the launch.

I remember there were really no real issues that came up pending the weather,

and the weatherman gave this briefing, saying that, in his opinion,

there was a very high probability of rain showers during the launch window.

So NASA management decided, and this is something they hardly ever did...

Usually, even if it's a bad forecast, they go ahead and press ahead,

but in this case for some reason, they decided to scrub the launch.

Space agency officials called off the launch late last night

after air force meteorologist said they expected rain and thunderstorms

during the entire three-hour launch window.

I mean, I was really glad that they did,

because that happened to be Super Bowl Sunday.

The first refrigerator to score.

And the largest running back ever to score a touchdown.

I did get to see the Super Bowl.

But the showers they were worried about didn't come in until late that afternoon,

so we missed a perfectly good day to launch.

NASA gambled and lost.

A cold front expected to move over the Kennedy Space Center early Sunday

didn't until about 10:30 a.m., nearly an hour after the shuttle Challenger

was supposed to have lifted off.

But space agency officials say

weather should not be a problem for a Monday-morning launch.

John Zarrella, CNN, at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

They don't delay unless there's... it's not perfect,

and that's fine with me.

I'd be much happier if it went up when everybody thought it was perfect

than to go up on a chance basis.

Officially, Christa is now in quarantine,

only allowed to see members of her family,