Too many people abandon the last part of January as a space program mourning period.

Too often ignoring this:

January 31st , 1958 was a great day, indeed the FIRST great day, in the US Space program. The launch of the first US Satellite, Explorer-1, after the double humiliation of Sputnik and the Vanguard-1 explosion ("Kaputnik").

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Did my standard audio production salute this morning, sync'd to match liftoff time at 11:38 and balloon release with commemorative document release 74 seconds later.

Little breezy this morning but at least it was clear and beautiful out. Balloons cleared the trees to the southeast of where I was standing shortly after this photo was made.

Salute to all who have given their lives in the pursuit of the Final Frontier: Apollo 1, Challenger 51-L, Columbia STS-107.

Earl

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Earl L. Cagle, Jr.
NAR# 29523
TRA# 962
SAM# 73
Owner/Producer
Point 39 Productions

Rocket-Brained Since 1970

So today I went up to Concord, NH to grab a Concord Monitor newspaper and to my amazement I was the cover story of the newspaper.
I bought two papers.

If you interested in reading the story, here it is. Go to the news section, read the story then click on the pic's. Scroll to the last one.

https://www.concordmonitor.com/Chri...ersary-38576464

The one thing I forgot to tell about my story and I didn't know this information at the time was John Denver was suppose to be on that Shuttle instead of Christa.
President Reagan had it change from JD to a teacher in space because it would make more of an impact.
It did.

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Really... never knew that.

The "teacher in space" program was one of several that NASA PR came up with to drum up support for the space program and present the "every-man astronaut" concept that they were pushing for. That and "prove" the space shuttle was "just like an airliner" or the "space dump truck" they had told everyone it was. They had been flying connected politicians who would throw their weight into support for NASA a couple times already-- after the removal of the ejection seats after STS-4 and the declaration of the shuttle as "operational" it freed up the capability to launch seven astronauts in the shuttle by having three seats on the lower deck (which couldn't have been equipped with ejection seats during the earlier "test"missions therefore were left vacant, limiting the crew size to four on the initial four flights). Basically they had more "seats" than needed on most shuttle missions so they could allocate those "spare seats" to anyone who was expedient to fill them, including congressvermin and others.

The "teacher in space" program was to be followed by the "reporter in space" and then the "artist in space" program. I remember when the program was announced and I asked my 7th or 8th grade history teacher, who had gone to school with my Dad at Shiner a couple years behind him, if he was gonna apply, and he just laughed and said, "no way they'd get *me* up inside that thing!" How little did we know. Of course they picked Christa because of her bubbly, vivacious personality and great appearance on camera... a perfect blend of attractiveness, competent professional well-educated teacher, and that down-home "aww shucks" type personality-- relatable, like the so-called "girl next door" kinda vibe she gave off. She was a gold mine for NASA PR... Her backup, also selected in the teacher-in-space program, runner up Barbara Morgan, was also of similar predisposition but was never as engaging or charming from what I saw. Christa was excited and could make you excited for her in what she was doing. Barbara never seemed to be able to do that.

Anyway, the "teacher in space" was to be followed by the "reporter in space" and reading Jay Barbree's book, he almost killed himself trying to get that slot. He had covered every manned space launch up to that point, and figured he would be a prominent contender for the trip into space, and so despite being middle aged he started running and pushing himself to get into better physical shape, and actually ended up dropping dead running on the beach one day. Fortunately he was seen by a group nearby and someone managed to keep him going with CPR til he got to the hospital and they managed to revive him. The "artist in space" would have been to fly some practitioner of the arts, be it poet, painter, musician, etc into space, who would then be able to "come back and relay their thoughts and feelings" in an artistically expressive way to the populace at large, in a way that the scientifically and logically minded, well grounded Apollo astronauts had been sorely lacking according to most... When asked how he felt being on the Moon, Neil Armstrong usually was of a mind, "what has that got to do with anything" but usually just answered with a generic "it was great" or something to that effect. Most of the other astronauts were little better in how they conveyed their emotions, if they even took note of them, since their minds were rather uniquely trained as test pilots and scientists to put their feelings aside and focus solely on the task at hand and completing the mission. It was felt that launching an "artist" into space would give someone who had that ability to put things into words, or into music, or onto a canvas, etc. would be able to then convey those emotions much more succinctly and relatably than the taciturn eminently logical astronauts who came across about like Mr. Spock.

At any rate, after Challenger caused the deaths of all aboard, and put to an end the idea of the shuttle being "just another airliner, but to space", all such "fluff" programs were done away with. So Jay Barbree never got his chance to fly into space. Nor John Denver...

Barbara Morgan stuck it out inside the NASA Astronaut office and managed to snag a shuttle mission YEARS later. I also read in doing a bit of checking online about this story that Christa's mother passed away in late 2018 at age 94. Don't know what happened to her father.

Later! OL J R

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Also, Gregory Jarvis wasn't supposed to be on Challenger either. He won a contest at shuttle contractor Hughes Aircraft for a "payload specialist" slot, which was basically a position that NASA created for the "excess seats" on shuttle... Obviously the commander and pilot were the most highly trained, and in charge of the mission and had key roles in it and landing the shuttle or handling emergencies, with the "regular astronauts" doing their part in the mission, usually with the title, "mission specialists" that were trained not only in the basic safety and basic knowledge of the shuttle systems and operations on orbit, but also to perform important specific jobs relating to the mission that was being flown, such as operating the Canadarm to grasp a satellite or maneuver an astronaut up to one for servicing work, etc. "Payload specialists" was the lowest category, since basically they might be flying to be able to perform some secondary tasks related to the "payload" that was being flown on the mission, but weren't going to be responsible for any major operations during the mission, and could be minimally trained in only basic safety and operations of the vehicle, like how to prepare food, use the toilet, what to do in an emergency, getting buckled in, etc. No or very little "mission specific" training like running the Canadarm or anything like that, maybe performing some experiments while on board or something of that sort, and that was about it. Christa and Barbara and Greg Jarvis were trained as payload specialists.

Greg Jarvis had a seat on the previous shuttle flight, in one of the "open slots" that could be filled by "anybody" since they weren't "mission specific". BUT, he got "bumped" because NASA wanted to fly Senator Jake Garn as soon as possible, to get his support within Congress for NASA funding and issues. SO Jarvis's seat went to Garn on that flight and he got bumped to the next flight, which happened to be Challenger.

Later! OL J R

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Christa's father passed like in 1990. Only about four years after her and very near the anniversary of her death (like late January of 1990...it was cancer).

Her tragic death may have hastened his, but that is just conjecture on my part. Hard thing to witness in person. I can't imagine....

Earl

__________________
Earl L. Cagle, Jr.
NAR# 29523
TRA# 962
SAM# 73
Owner/Producer
Point 39 Productions

Rocket-Brained Since 1970

One more piece of lost info.
One of my High School teacher's from Central HS in Manchester, NH was backup for Judith Resnic.
I can't recall his full name, but Robert was his first name.
I caught up with him eleven years ago at the HS I was working at.
He was my English teacher for one semester during my sophomore year.
He taught Science Fiction literature(a subject I ate up)
That was in winter/spring 1977.
A certain Sci-Fi movie came out that spring and we all went to a special showing.
I knew of this movie for over a year because Starlog Magazine published that it was supposed to come out for Christmas 1976. I can't remember why it was delayed for six months.
I think I still have that issue.

I found my year book and the teachers name.

Robert Veilleux.(pronounced Vey-U)

Here is an article from three years ago.

http://www.acadianightskyfestival.o...-from-space-27/

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