CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) – The 14 display cases at Kennedy Space Center contain intensely personal mementoes and other items representing the astronauts who perished in the Challenger and Columbia accidents.
They are part of NASA’s new “Forever Remembered” exhibit, which includes the first public display of pieces from each lost space shuttle.
NASA’s Michael Ciannilli began contacting the astronauts’ families in 2012, gently consulting with them and collecting belongings. Every encounter, he said, left him ever more humbled.
A few families were reluctant to donate personal items, including that of schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe, yet assured Ciannilli, “We trust you to represent our loved one the very best you can.” He conferred with the astronauts’ friends and former co-workers, and read up extensively on each one who died.
“We could have filled a case 10 times the size on each one of these folks and still used more room … because they were so multidimensional,” Ciannilli said, “and each conversation would lead to something else.”