Forty years ago, the nation was watching as the space shuttle Challenger began its ascent on a cold Florida morning, headed for the stars.
Tragedy followed. Just 73 seconds after launch, O-ring seals in a rocket booster failed, causing a disaster that claimed the lives of the seven astronauts on board.
While the fatal accident profoundly altered the nation's space program, it also sparked a powerful and enduring mission led by the astronauts' families: to inspire young people through education, curiosity and exploration. That mission lives on today through Challenger Learning Centers across the country, including the Challenger Learning Center of Tallahassee.
As the nation approaches the 40th anniversary of the disaster, the Challenger Learning Center is launching its Legacy Campaign - a renewed commitment to remembrance, education, and the future of STEM learning.
"The Challenger Legacy Campaign is about honoring the crew not only through remembrance, but through action," said Alan Hanstein, the center's executive director. "By strengthening our programs, updating our mission simulators, and expanding access to hands-on STEM education, we're ensuring future generations continue to see science as something they belong in."
For more than two decades, the Challenger Learning Center of Tallahassee has honored the crew's legacy through action, inspiring curiosity, courage and a love of learning in young people. As the K-12 STEM outreach arm of the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering, the center has served more than one million students across North Florida, South Georgia and beyond, many of whom were encountering hands-on science and engineering for the first time.
The center will honor its namesake mission and the astronauts who took part on Wednesday, Jan. 28, with a commemorative service.
The free memorial, held from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., will include a bell-ringing ceremony for each crew member, remarks from community leaders and reflections from representatives of the National Challenger Center. Throughout the exhibit hall, artifacts and visual stories will be displayed to highlight the lives, careers and legacies of the Challenger crew.
Through educational programming and exhibits, the Challenger mission continues. The Challenger Legacy Campaign supports that ongoing mission.
The initiative is focused on enhancing the center's mission control facility, creating a permanent exhibit honoring the seven astronauts who lost their lives, and developing new educational programming centered on the Challenger mission and its lessons.
The campaign aims to ensure future generations experience not only a modernized learning environment, but also a deeper understanding of the Challenger mission and its enduring lessons.
"The Challenger disaster is one of those seminal moments in our country's history that unites many of us in memory and knowledge," said Suvranu De, dean of the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering, which is the parent organization for Challenger Learning Center of Tallahassee. "Even though it was a national tragedy, the birth of initiatives like the Challenger Center network keeps the crew's memories and dedication to sharing STEM education alive and well. Tallahassee's Challenger Center is a testament to the amazing outcomes that can grow from grief in the wake of the unthinkable. I am so proud of what Alan and the staff of the Challenger Center do, educating tens of thousands of budding engineers, scientists, doctors and scientifically curious youth every year."
Founded in 2003, the center was established by Tallahassee leaders with deep ties to space and education, including Norman Thagard, retired astronaut and former associate dean of the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering; C.J. Chen, former dean of the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering; and Captain Winston Scott, retired astronaut and former Florida State University vice president for student affairs.
Together, they envisioned a center that would carry forward the mission embraced by the Challenger crew's families by creating a hands-on, STEM-focused learning environment rooted in inspiration and discovery.
Each year, the Challenger Learning Center of Tallahassee serves between 40,000 and 60,000 students, offering immersive, hands-on STEM experiences designed to foster curiosity, collaboration and problem-solving.
Through simulated space missions, interactive exhibits, an IMAX theatre and a one-of-a-kind planetarium, the CLC invites students and community members alike to engage with science in an environment inspired by space exploration.
A full list of events and more information are available on the legacy campaign website, and memorial details are available at the Challenger Learning Center of Tallahassee event website.
