June Scobee Rodgers, left, widow of Commander Dick Scobee, who died with his crew when the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded on takeoff in 1986; and Downey Mayor Anne Bayer cut the ribbon dedicating the Challenger Space Flight Simulator in the Columbia Memorial Space Center Monday. From left in back are Dan Barstow, president of the Challenger Center for Space Science Education; Downey City Councilman Dave Gafin, a member of the Miss Downey Court, and City Council members Roger Brossmer, Luis Marquez and Mario Guerra. (Photo by Arnold Adler)
Story Created:
Sep 2, 2010 at 10:49 AM PST
Story Updated:
Sep 3, 2010 at 11:29 AM PST
DOWNEY — The Columbia Memorial Space Center, 12400 Columbia Way, is named in honor of the crew members of the Space Shuttle Columbia, who died upon re-entry to earth's atmosphere Feb. 1, 2003.
But Monday afternoon city officials dedicated part of that facility — the Challenger Learning Center Space Flight Simulator — to the memory of the crew of the Space Shuttle Challenger, which exploded on takeoff Jan. 28, 1986.
Both shuttles and others were designed and manufactured on the former 160-acre NASA site in the 1960s and 70s.
The flight simulator was purchased several years ago for about $800,000 from the Challenger Center for Space Science Education, a nationwide, nonprofit group composed of friends and family of the Challenger crew who want to “continue the mission” of space flight.
Divided into two rooms, the two-hour simulator program depicts a trip to the moon, and is aimed at student groups.
One group performs duties in the control room on Earth while the other group is in the simulated shuttle. They communicate by radio and computer and combine to solve various problems which are programmed.
The groups then switch to experience both aspects of the flight.
“The new center is one of 50 in the United States. More than 400 students a year visit them,” said Dan Barstow, president of the Space Science Education group.
“My husband believed in ‘the mission,’” said June Scobee Rodgers, founding chairman of the group and widow of the Challenger Commander, Francis “Dick” Scobee.
“A group of us got together and decided to continue the mission, but through education to encourage future astronauts,” said Rodgers, who was the main speaker at the ceremony.
“June lost a husband and shouldered the burden of the whole nation. We decided we must move on,” said Keith Cowing, a board member of the Challenger group.
“We could not take part in actual space flight but we could teach young students,” said Rodgers, noting that one of the lost crew members was school teacher Christa McAuliffe, who served as a payload specialist.
Other crew members were Michael Smith, pilot; Ellison Onizuka, mission specialist, Judith Resnik, mission specialist; Ronald McNair, mission specialist; and Gregory Jarvis, payload specialist.
Recalling that she and Commander Scobee married as teenagers, Rodgers said her first husband was a test pilot and flew supersonic planes over Edwards Air Force Base.
Always interested in space flight, he applied for an astronaut job after seeing in ad in the Los Angeles Times in 1981.
“He got the job,” Rodgers noted.
Relating an incident when the Challenger crew (after a previous successful flight) was honored by then-president Ronald Reagan, who forgot Scobee’s name, the astronaut said “names were not important, but the mission was.”
“After 50 years of space flight, we are at a crossroad,” Barstow said. “The next generation is our hope for the future. Downey is still at the center of the space movement,” Barstow said.
Calling for continued space exploration and flights, Cowing said “we did it before and we can do it again. We can do it better.”
Downey Mayor Anne Bayer welcomed the several hundred people in attendance.
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