By Jay B., 2nd Year, Sophomore This past Thursday, January 28, 2020, marked the thirty-fifth anniversary of the fatal Challenger Space Shuttle explosion that tragically killed Dick Scobee, Judy Resnik, Greg Jarvis, Mike Smith, Ellison Onizuka, Ron McNair, and Christa McAuliffe. On Thursday, I spent a lot of time thinking about the influence of Challenger, what went wrong, and it’s crew, specifically Ron McNair. McNair served as one of three mission specialists on the Challenger. Born and raised in Lake City, South Carolina, McNair was inspired by his family and a teacher that saw potential in him to work hard in his scientific studies. McNair received his bachelor’s in physics from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University and his Ph. D. in laser physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He went on to become one of the first African Americans selected to be astronauts along with Guion S. Bluford, Jr. and Frederick Gregory. In addition to these accolades and the work McNair did for NASA, he has received three honorary doctorate degrees and numerous distinctions. And to me, McNair is, and will always forever be, a great inspiration. McNair was born and grew up in a struggling family that lived in a racially segregated city. To be living in that environment comes with a wealth of adversity and hurdles that one must go through. To overcome great tribulations can be very difficult and sometimes discouraging, however, McNair was able to overcome these challenges and receive a wealth of accolades and become the best of the best. In this way, McNair inspires me so much, and in some ways, I see myself in him. I, like McNair, did not come up in the best circumstances, of which were statistically impossible to overcome. However, I overcame. To see someone like McNair, black and from a struggling household, be able to become highly successful in a field that did not at first have space for minorities, is empowering and inspiring, especially to young black kids who have an interest in STEM. His legacy is one that many can look at and say, “Wow, I can do that too.” We can look back on Challenger thirty-five years later and ask ourselves the “what if” or “what could have been prevented” questions, but I believe that those questions don’t matter as much as the legacy that the crew members left behind and the influence that the Challenger crash had on the future of space exploration. McNair truly did leave behind a lasting legacy, one that shows that anyone can make a difference, anyone can make it to the top and achieve greatness with hard work and dedication. To McNair and the rest of the Challenger crew, I thank you all for your service to the many generations that have been inspired by your courage, bravery and strength. I thank you for showing people, like myself, that anything is possible, and that anyone can shoot for the stars and aim for the moon.
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AuthorThe CSP Blog is written by members of the CSP Media team, with guest blogs by alumni and other guests. Archives
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