Space Exploration

Events are organized in narratives and form stories. The story of the Space Shuttle is an example of government (NASA) looking to private industry (communications, travel, manufacturing) to support the U.S. colonization of outer space. Every launch was an event that contributed to the "exploration" narrative, with the January, 1986 launch of the Space Shuttle Challenger a real-time teaching moment. By then, most knew the shape its launch would take, only this time our children would hear about it from an on-board high school social studies teacher named Christa McAuliffe. But when that second O-ring blew, due in large part to an unseasonably cold day, disaster took hold of the pen and split its line in two.