The Price of a Dream: Space Shuttle for Sale

December 18, 2008

According to the Associated Press today, the Space Shuttle Program is looking for new homes for the spacecraft after they retire in 2010. As an avid fan and perpetual dreamer when it comes to space, this story struck a personal chord.

I remember in sixth grade as television sets were wheeled in to my classroom so we could witness the explosion and of the Shuttle Challenger the morning of January 28, 1986. My teacher, Mrs. Turner, cried silently, as the news echoed in our room over the next half-hour. I may not have understood then what a teacher might feel about that tragically inspiring event, but I do now.

After that morning, I courageously, and perhaps naively, resolved to see the Earth from space before I died. My lifelong fascination with space science and space travel was born out of the ashes of that momentous event. At age 34, though I no longer aspire to that fearsome goal, I have dedicated my life to teaching, like my hero, STS-51-L Challenger Astronaut, Christa McAuliffe.

I wonder if one of my students may even be the brave explorer who sets foot on the Moon or Mars in my lifetime. Our unit on Space Science, travel, and history is one of their favorite units of study. I dream about one of my students fulfilling my aspiration to orbit this majestic and fragile planet we now call home.

This morning I read the news to my third grade class. As my students offered me the money out of their pockets (I counted $24 towards the campaign to bring a shuttle to our playground), I had to hold back tears of joy and wonder. The space program still inspires young and old in reaching for the stars and perpetuates that feeling of awesome discovery responsible for the greatest inventions and triumphs of the mind in all of human history.