S 847

South Carolina General Assembly
126th Session, 2025-2026
Bill 847
Indicates Matter Stricken
Indicates New Matter
(Text matches printed bills. Document has been reformatted to meet World Wide Web specifications.)
A senate RESOLUTION
to commemorate the fortieth anniversary of the
tragic explosion of the Challenger space Shuttle, and to recognize October 21,
2026, as "ronald McNair Day" in South Carolina.
Whereas, forty years
ago, a hopeful nation watched the Challenger shuttle take off from Cape
Canaveral, Florida, and then cried in disbelief as the spaceship exploded
seventy-three seconds into its flight. School children across the country and
their teachers, businessmen and women, shoppers, and people at home witnessed
via live television the horrific conclusion of the hopes and dreams of the
seven souls aboard; and
Whereas, the crew was
scheduled to deploy a commercial communications satellite and study Halley's
Comet while they were in orbit, in addition to taking schoolteacher Christa
McAuliffe into space under the Teacher in Space Project, which resulted in
higher-than-usual media coverage of the mission; and
Whereas, on January 28,
1986, the spacecraft disintegrated forty-six thousand feet above the Atlantic
Ocean. It was the first fatal accident involving an American spacecraft while
in flight. The mission, designated STS-51-L, was the tenth flight for the
orbiter and the twenty-fifth flight of the Space Shuttle fleet; and
Whereas, the disaster
resulted in a thirty-two-month hiatus in the Space Shuttle program, and the
Rogers Commission was created to investigate the accident. The commission
criticized NASA's organizational culture and decision-making processes that had
contributed to the accident. Test data since 1977 had demonstrated a
potentially catastrophic flaw in the SRBs' O-rings, but neither the SRB
manufacturer nor NASA had addressed this known defect. NASA managers also
disregarded engineers' warnings about the dangers of launching in low
temperatures and did not report these concerns to superiors; and
Whereas, as a result of this
disaster, NASA established the Office of Safety, Reliability, and Quality
Assurance, and arranged for deployment of commercial satellites from expendable
launch vehicles, rather than from a crewed orbiter. To replace the Challenger,
the construction of a new Space Shuttle orbiter, Endeavour, was approved
in 1987, which first flew in 1992. Subsequent missions were launched with
redesigned SRBs and their crews wore pressurized suits during ascent and
reentry; and
Whereas, one of the astronauts
who perished in the flight was South Carolina native, Dr. Ronald Erwin McNair.
Born in Lake City on October 21, 1950, he was the son of Pearl McNair, a high
school teacher, and Carl C. McNair, an auto mechanic; and
Whereas, Dr. McNair attended
Lake City Elementary School and graduated as valedictorian from Carver High
School. In 1967, he began college at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical
State University and pledged the Omega Psi Phi fraternity through the Mu Psi
Chapter in 1969. In 1971, he earned a bachelor's degree in physics and
graduated magna cum laude. He earned a doctorate in physics in 1976 from the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In the same year, he won the AAU Karate
gold medal and subsequently earned a fifth-degree black belt in karate; and
Whereas, Dr. McNair also
received four honorary doctorates, as well as a score of fellowships and
commendations. He became a staff physicist at the Hughes Research Lab in
Malibu, California. In 1978, he was selected as one of thirty-five applicants
from a pool of ten thousand for the NASA astronaut program. Dr. McNair flew as
a mission specialist on STS-41-B aboard Challenger from February 3-11,
1984, and was the second African American to fly in space. On January 28, 1986,
he was one of three mission specialists in a crew of seven. McNair crater on
the Moon is named in his memory; and
Whereas, on March 12,
2018, the South Carolina Legislature passed 2018 Act No. 141 (H. 4858) into law
to designate every October 21 as "Ronald McNair Day" in the Palmetto
State.  Now, therefore,
Be it resolved by the Senate:
That the members of the
South Carolina Senate, by this resolution,
commemorate the fortieth anniversary of the tragic explosion of the Challenger
spacecraft, and recognize October 21, 2026, as "Ronald McNair Day" in
South Carolina.
----XX----
This web page was last updated on January 28, 2026 at 01:41 PM