For Dennis McAfee, it’s a long way from his house just off Rockrimmon Boulevard in Colorado Springs to that fateful day at Concord High School in Concord, New Hampshire – just under 2,000 miles and 40 years, to be precise. A gifted and enthusiastic auto mechanics teacher, Dennis arrived at ca mpus on the morning of January 28, 1986 with an extra spring in his step. His friend and colleague, Christa McAuliffe, was scheduled to be aboard the 25th Space Shuttle mission slated for takeoff from Florida’s Cape Canaveral. Dennis and his fellow teachers and students were to gather in the school library to watch the historic launch. A history instructor at Concord High School, McAuliffe had been selected out of 11,000 applicants to be NASA’s first teacher in space. Trained to be a payload specialist on the mission officially tagged “STS 51-L,” Christa and her six other crew members (Commander Dick Scobee, Michael J. Smith, Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Judith Resnik, and Gregory Jarvis), had been given three main objectives for the six-day journey. First, they were to launch the second-ever “Tracking and Data Relay Satellite.” Second, they were to track Halley’s Comet via another satellite. Finally, they were to help support the teacher-in-space program, which was to include Christa teaching lessons from the Challenger. As everyone knows, none of it ever happened. Just 73 seconds after liftoff, the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded, killing everyone onboard and sending the nation into mourning. If you were above a certain age that day, you remember where you were when you heard the awful news. Dennis and Christa often ate launch together in the faculty lounge. He remembers vividly the day she arrived at school with hope in her voice and the NASA application in her hand. “She seemed to have everything,” he said. “She had married her high school sweetheart, had two young kids, was a great teacher – was smart, a hard worker, witty, good humored and the kids loved her. I’m sure NASA picked her because they knew the rest of the country would love her, too.” The failure of two rubber O-rings designed to seal a joint in a rocket booster caused the fireball, a tragedy that investigators later deemed entirely preventable had NASA heeded the warnings of Roger Boisjoly and his team. They said the rings would fail in cold weather. Mr. Boisjoly was an aerospace engineer who worked for Morton Thiokol, the contractor who built the solid rocket boosters for NASA. The Challenger had been scheduled for launch on January 22nd but was delayed due to weather and technical issues. Similar problems scuttled planned launches on the 23rd, 24th, 25th and 26th. Cold weather on the morning of the 28th threatened to cancel the launch yet again. In fact, Boisjoly led the charge the night before to scrap the mission, and again the 28th. It’s not that Boisjoly’s bosses thought they were smarter than the engineers. Rather, they caved to what they perceived to be professional and political pressure. Delays cost money and the world was waiting. In hindsight, it was a horrific failure of leadership. Today’s 40th anniversary of the Challenger explosion is a day to honor the pioneering courage of those seven astronauts. But it should also be an occasion to be reminded how important it is to stand firm when making an unpopular decision or holding a contrarian position. Conviction without courage is hollow. The world doesn’t need more people who simply go along to get along. We need brave, courageous and principled individuals with grit, guts and gumption. When Roger Boisjoly died in 2012 at the age of 73, he was remembered as a reluctant “whistleblower” – a term dating back to the 19th century when law enforcement or referees blew whistles to indicate a crime or foul. But that courage came at steep personal cost. Invited to testify before a commission appointed by President Ronald Reagan, his candid answers put him at odds with company management. He was taken off projects and shunned by leadership. He navigated bouts of depression, headaches, and double vision. Roger spent his final years lecturing about workplace ethics. Dennis McAfee isn’t in the classroom anymore but works on his Ford Falcon and other machines in his garage and driveway. He’s a big advocate for trade schools, still fights for the underdog student, serves neighbors, and believes the future depends on those willing to speak up when silence might seem safer. Christa McAuliffe and Roger Boisjoly would approve. Paul J. Batura is a local writer and founder of the 4:8 Media Network. He can be reached via email [email protected] or on X @PaulBatura. ...read more read less