{"id":135985,"date":"2026-01-29T06:12:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T06:12:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/135985\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T06:12:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T06:12:07","slug":"tallahassees-challenger-learning-center-observes-the-40th-anniversary-of-the-tragedy-that-became-a-vehicle-for-young-people-to-reach-for-the-stars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/135985\/","title":{"rendered":"Tallahassee’s Challenger Learning Center observes the 40th anniversary of the tragedy that became a vehicle for young people to reach for the stars"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wednesday, January 28 was the 40th anniversary of the Challenger disaster. But in Tallahassee, and other cities with a Challenger Learning Center, the occasion was one of celebration rather than mourning.<\/p>\n

Dozens of people attended the local Challenger Center ceremony. But only one – Tallahassee’s resident Astronaut Dr. Norm Thagard – actually had a personal relationship with those who were aboard the shuttle in 1986.<\/p>\n

“Ron McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Judy Resnik and Dick Scobee and I came into the astronaut program together on July 10, 1978.”<\/p>\n

Former Tallahassee State Representative Marjorie Turnbull was very much responsible for securing the legislative funding for the local center as a legacy.<\/p>\n

“The family members came together and decided to create the Challenger Centers throughout the United States to foster interest and excellence in the fields of science, technology, engineering (and) mathematics.”<\/p>\n

\"These<\/p>\n

These youngsters were about to embark on a simulated space journey when they paused to watch the Challenger Center’s anniversary ceremony.<\/p>\n

Fittingly, as the main floor ceremony went on, a large group of young people who were enjoying the Center’s experiences, watched attentively from the upstairs balcony. Then they were off on a realistic, simulated space mission of their own.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wednesday, January 28 was the 40th anniversary of the Challenger disaster. But in Tallahassee, and other cities with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":135986,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[232,234,233],"class_list":{"0":"post-135985","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tallahassee","8":"tag-tallahassee","9":"tag-tallahassee-headlines","10":"tag-tallahassee-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135985","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135985"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135985\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}