NASA workers pause for solemn tribute (Houston Chronicle)
Comments(0) Flags at the Johnson Space Center in Houston and nine other NASA installations across the country were lowered to half-staff to honor the 17 astronauts who perished in the 2003 Columbia breakup, the 1986 shuttle Challenger explosion and the 1967 Apollo 1 launchpad fire.
[…]
Francis Scobee, Michael Smith, Ellison Onizuka, Judith Resnik, Ronald McNair, New Hampshire school teacher Christa McAuliffe and Gregory Jarvis of Hughes Aircraft Co. All were lost when Challenger exploded after lift-off Jan. 28, 1986.
[Each morning, I watch CNN for headlines as I eat breakfast and drink tea. As I watched it this morning, coverage of this memorial and remembrance of the Challenger crew focused primarily on Christa McAuliffe, but no attention was given to Ronald McNair and I believe that is offensive. McNair was a black professor of physics and his death inspired the Trio organization to begin a national program named in his honor called the Ronald E. McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement Program.
Its purpose is to provide opportunities for talented first-generation students who are from a low-income background or an underrepresented minority in PhD studies to pursue graduate school and earn a PhD in their chosen field. I participated as a McNair Scholar in Cohort 5 at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. Today I am proudly wearing my McNair T-shirt that says “Igniting Talent” because I believe in what that program represents and attention needs to be called to Dr. McNair’s legacy of higher education. BK]
category: Technology