Forty years ago this past week, the space shuttle Challenger broke apart moments into its flight, killing all seven of its crew members.
Many Chattanoogans know that one of those members was Commander Dick Scobee, whose widow, June Scobee Rodgers, lives in the Scenic City and was one of the forces behind the Challenger Center, which is located adjacent to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga campus.
The Medal of Honor posthumously awarded Scobee in 2004 lies in Chattanooga’s Charles Coolidge National Medal of Honor Heritage Center, where it is a part of the Dick Scobee Space Medal of Honor Gallery.
Another one of the Challenger astronauts, mission specialist Ronald McNair, was recalled there last week with the publication of a children’s book about him, “It’s Possible: The Story of Ronald McNair,” by Chattanooga author Rita Lorraine Hubbard.
It came about, she said, after a 2023 conversation with Maranda Wilkinson, director of education and public programming at the Coolidge Medal of Honor Heritage Center, who wanted to keep young people interested in the lives of those individuals who earned a Medal of Honor.