Challenger 1990

that's so true, i was only a kid when challenger blew up and in england we didn't really know much of the woman, until she died of course, then she was the "averagenaught" but the way she was presented, like a petualant spoit brat, fighting until she got her own way, she was working amoungst scientists, engineers and not once did the film indicate she seem thankful to be there. a travesty of character bashing. since then i've read more about her, but one thing i keep thinking about, she shuttle was a small cramped space, and she was always going on to nasa about her equipment. i just think if they had put more thought into what they were doing then the accident could have been avoided.

Thunderbirds Aren't Slow

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While I agree that the Challenger movie is not a very good portrayal of the crew of the shuttle, or of the events surrounding the Challenger disaster I must take issue with all of this "Christa bashing" that seems so prevalent here on IMDb.

Of course, it's par for the course with IMDb. I have never seen a forum on the net where people are so hateful and vitriolic as here at IMDb. I thank the powers that be in this universe I am not an actor, or some other famous individual because if I were I would inevitably be bashed, attacked, and berated by 35 year olds living in their grandparents' garages with in joyous possession of way too much time on their hands so that they can sit on a computer and write out poorly spelled diatribes against people like Christa McAuliffe.

Then again, the opinions of such people, if directed at myself, would mean nothing to me because I would have to be a fairly insecure person to worry over whether or not someone who takes their enjoyment out of attacking others in an anonymous forum actually likes me.

Rachael Ray... Miley Cyrus... Charles Rocket.... Traylor Howard... and the entire cast of Star Trek Voyager as well as the series itself: all victims of vicious IMDb bashing by people who pretend to be experts in whatever field the bashee is involved in.

The most humorous of the lot are the Voyager bashers- people with no better than an 8th grade education who pretend to be middle aged, experienced television writers with their mock-professional critiques of Voyager scripts. It really is laughable to see someone ranting against the storyline of a science-fiction television show as if it's apparent lack of quality had done something to ruin their hope for a happy life !

But... when I stumble across this sort of thing attacking a person like Christa McAuliffe I have to throw in a counterpoint.

Now, first of all one cannot hope to get an accurate example of Christa's personality, or the personalities of any of the Challenger astronauts from this 1990 movie. It is terribly miscast; none of the actors fit their characters and Karen Allen (a normally likable, and talented actress) seems like a caricature of McAuliffe.

I've seen the Teacher in Space program referred to as a "publicity stunt" several times on this forum. I wonder what Barbara Morgan, Christa's Teacher in Space alternate who actually went up on a Shuttle mission close to 20 years later would think of such a comment ?

And what Ms. Morgan would think of all the Christa-bashing remarks, calling Christa a "spoit brat", etc.... I know... someone here is armed and ready with an "I read in such-and-such tell all book" revelation that Barbara and Christa were bitter enemies. But, all you have to do is go to YouTube and watch the footage of Barbara watching the shuttle take off, and seeing the explosion to know she was not, in any way a "rival" of Christa's nor did she have anything against her.

So, I ask again- what would she think of not only these personal attacks on a fellow teacher and someone she worked closely with in training to go up on the Challenger mission... but also on the attacks on the Teacher in Space program itself ?

If Christa was a "spoit brat", as one other poster here remarked, and was always making trouble for the mission then why didn't NASA officials imply remove her from the program, and send Ms. Morgan up in her place ?

What ? Did I hear someone say they couldn't because of the press ? How would it look ? Well, we are talking about the Federal Government here... and if a largely military organization like NASA can't sit on a few reporters and put out a story satisfying the news media so as to save face for their organization and still be able to remove an apparent trouble maker from their space program... well... the government has put a lot more powerful spin on the press than that before and after the Challenger disaster.

So, no one will ever be able to convince me Christa was nothing but a snotty troublemaker, and yet NASA, and Washington were powerless to remove her from the program and replace her with an alternate.

And, I will add that in the 22 years since the Challenger disaster I have never read one word in any reliable source that describes Christa McAuliffe the way she is begin described in these forums.

She wanted to wing it like she did as a high school teacher

Yeah... that's how she taught her class. That's what got her chosen as Teacher in Space to begin with. Ask any teacher and they'll tell you that all good teachers have their own teaching style. It's part of what makes the profession so unique and so important to our lives. And I hope that every teacher my daughter has will be a Christa McAuliffe.

Christa had every right to control what she taught and how she taught it on the mission- and someone insinuating that her teaching style and the equipment she wanted to take aboard the Challenger in some way caused the explosion - that is just plain ignorant meanness.

The Challenger exploded because of a faulty O-ring that did not expand properly and seal the orbiter's booster rockets safely, resulting in an explosion. The O-ring malfunctioned due to weather conditions. The launch was being pushed forward not because of a "publicity stunt", but because of a heavy launch schedule planned by NASA for 1986.

There is no way that Christa, crowding the tiny orbiter interior with all her teaching equipment (as someone insinuated) could have caused the explosion. The sheer silliness of that accusation is probably more laughable than people who pretend the writing quality on Voyager or Rachael Ray's possibility of being pregnant have some kind of profound effect on their lives, or society at large.

The people here who try to insinuate that Christa's personality in some way caused the disaster need to go and study the disaster in depth, find out why the orbiter actually exploded, why NASA pushed the launch forward, and rethink their position.

The woman had the audacity to put her program of personal self aggrandizement before her duties and bickered with NASA’s teacher in space program people over what was to be taught, how it was to be taught and didn’t want to be hampered with a precise lesson plan.

First of all, I'm sure any of the mission specialists would bicker with their "superiors" to make certain that their part of the mission was carried off successfully. What you see as Christa's personal self aggrandizement is actually a devotion to her "duty" as a teacher, and to be the Teacher in Space in the first place.

It's the same with anyone on any kind of similar mission.

Of course I only have fictional example to make a comparison to right off hand- but in this case I site the TV series, Stargate SG-1, which has been praised by the US Air Force for it's portrayal of that military organization. The Air Force, which is the primary military contributer of personnel to the space program.

How often does Daniel Jackson, a civilian member of the SG-1 team clash with his superiors on the series because of how he believes his job should be performed ?

Christa is a teacher trying to make certain that her job on the mission- to be a teacher, in space- is performed to the same standards that her classroom curriculum stood up to, which got her chosen over 11,000 other applicants to be teacher in space to being with.

NASA chose Christa as, essentially, the top in her field.

And then, of course, a small band of Christa-bashers 20 years after the fact, profess a low opinion of her because she behaved as the top person in their chosen field would behave in such a situation, rather than act as a shy wallflower with the one-word vocabulary of "yessir".

All of the seven astronauts who died on Challenger are heroes for their sacrifice and for the inspiration they have all been able to offer people, like me, who have come to know them through documented accounts of their lives.

And they were all astronauts... anyone who completes the training program and is authorized to participate in a shuttle mission is an astronaut. Or, more simply put, if you wear a mission patch, then you were an astronaut on that mission.

Seven astronauts died on January 28, 1986- not six astronauts and someone who doesn't deserve to be called an astronaut just because you boys don't like her !!

I believe all seven of those astronauts deserve to have their memories honored, and to make a good biographical film about Challenger it should be done as a miniseries, with detailed portrayals of all seven participants in that ill fated mission. No "star character". And that was the mistake of this movie, whether they chose to "star" Christa McAuliffe, or anyone else in the world.

Someone on one of the threads here commented that Christa was the star figure of this movie just as she had been in the actual footage and news reports of the disaster.

This is partially true- there was a lot of focus on Christa: as one person said in an ABC news interview on the day of the disaster, there was so much talk of Christa McAuliffe it was as if we knew her. This was not because she was some kind of egomaniac, or because the Teacher in Space program was mere theatrics but because Christa was a civilian- one's proverbial next door neighbor- going up in space.

But, I not only remember the day the Challenger exploded with vivid detail; it was the day that changed my life and motivated me to become what I am today (a computer programming engineer, and a licensed mechanic who also happens to be a woman- in two field dominated by men): I have also seen actual news footage of that day available for anyone to see on YouTube, and I've seen it recently enough that it is very fresh and vivid in my mind... and Christa is not at all the only member of the crew mentioned, honored, or mourned on that day !

If this erroneous statement were true then how is that on the night of January 28, 1986, an 11-year old girl in Arizona knew the names, birthyears, birthplaces, career histories, and positions on the Challenger mission of all seven astronauts just form watching Night Line ?

There is no way Night Line could have crammed all that info into a one hour broadcast and in any way allow it to be "dominated" by talk of Christa McAuliffe.

Well, of course anyone reading this has easily guessed that I am that 11-year old girl. I'm 33 years old now, and for the past 22 years of my life Christa, and the rest of the crew of Challenger- Ron McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Dick Scobee, Mike Smith, Judy Resnik, and Greg Jarvis have been heroes in my mind: inspirations, and role models.

I have digested everything available on the Challenger disaster in the 22 years since it happened, from the first books published in the aftermath to the recent Weather Channel program focusing on the effects weather had on the launch.

I have never seen anything to lead me to believe or even suspect that Christa was the terrible person people here seem to believe en masse that she was.

I guess I must have missed some tell all tabloid book - or maybe Christa has an evil twin or something ? Because everything I have ever seen, read, or otherwise researched on the Challenger disaster has painted a picture of Christa as a driven and dedicated teacher- a perfectionist, yes- but at the same time a good person who was a loving mother, a positive force in her community, and a dedicated educator the like of which we still, thankfully have in our school systems today.

Remember- if it weren't for teachers, none of us would know how to read or write- we wouldn't even be able to argue the good and bad of Christa McAuliffe if it weren't for people in her profession.

But, what I think is most important to put to rest here, is that Christa was a good person. And I seriously doubt that if any of you had died in her place, that you'd find Christa bashing you on an internet forum over 2 decades later.

She was too much of a classy lady to do that.

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I think dear Christa was as deserving as the other crew members...but they didn't do enough on Judy...I know she was single with no kids, but her life was interesting.

Did any of you know her parents divorced when she was a kid, that she had a younger brother, that she was a straight-A student in school, cried herself to sleep at night for years about her parents' divorce, scored a perfect SAT score in high school, attended the University of Maryland, and had a doctorate degree and most of the time was valedictorian of her class?

Did anyone know she was squeamish about centipedes and spiders?

Did anyone know she grew up in Akron and was Ukrainian Jewish?

I just wish the film had captured a bit of that in Judy.

And Judy did have a very pretty face.

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I watch many many dvds and like almost all I watch including Challenger. No film pleases everyone so I am not surprised at the negative comments. In fact, I found the ending to be annoying as they stop the film before the accident happened, which to me is anticlimactic at least. It has been many many years since I have seen the accident and would of liked to see it again. Not to feel the pain of it again, but to witness it as a part of our history.

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