Congress votes to issue a Christa McAuliffe commemorative

SkyMan

Definitely not my cup of tea, but here's yet another unnecessary commemorative with an unattractive design coming our way. IMO if they were going to do something along these lines, it would have been far better to commemorate the Challenger crew as a whole.

collectspace.com/news/news-092019a-christa-mcauliffe-coin-act.html

AlexinPA

Could have been a lot better.

BackroadJunkie

Yeah, I expressed my displeasure back in July when they introduced the bill...

2019 Christa McAuliffe Commemorative Coin Act passes senate...

BTW, the design on that page is not going to be the actual design. They haven't even gotten to that point in the process yet.

Hemispherical

Just wanted to commemorate the other crew members of STS-51L, at least, by their names:

Dick Scobee
Mike Smith
Elison Onizuka
Judy Resnik
Ron McNair
Greg Jarvis

ricko

I may get one of these.... I was living and working in Florida when this happened and I could see that launch trail and final burst from the company parking lot.... Burned into my memory. Cheers, RickO

FranklinHalfAddict

Very uninspiring design.
Agreed they should commemorate the whole crew.

TwoSides2aCoin

I'm in agreement with hemispherical. Singling out one person is an insult to "The Crew".
Their lives weren't as important ?

tincup

Sad.

johnny9434

its not for me either. to bad

JBK

I remember that day.

They chose to focus on the teacher-in-space angle but it us frustrating that the event is being referenced without memorializing the others as well.

WCC

Yet another modern commemorative destined to be mostly forgotten and lost in obscurity years from now.

WillieBoyd2

The proposed coin, according to the Congress, is to raise funds for a STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) program and robotics competition. It is not a memorial for the shuttle victims.

Ironically, Christa McAuliffe was not a science or mathematics teacher. She was a high school social studies teacher.

The coin is also a reminder of a spectacular technology failure.

LindeDad

Uninspiring a usual.

FullStrike

Good subject, but I agree with others about the design. Nothing special. But at least its better looking than the Classic Eunice Shriver Coin.

Too bad they couldn't throw in a Judith Resnick to honor the rest of the Crew.

But then she wasn't anything spacial. Just a good looking Woman Astronaut.

SkyMan

@FullStrike said:
...
Too bad they couldn't throw in a Judith Resnick to honor the rest of the Crew.

But then she wasn't anything spacial. Just a good looking Woman Astronaut.

With all due respect, over 8,000 applied to become astronauts in the "astronaut class" she was accepted in. 35 were chosen. Needless to say, just to make it to the BEGINNING of the application procedure, e.g. to be one of those 8,000, you had to be significantly more advanced than the vast majority of Americans in a wide variety of disciplines. To actually be accepted put her WELL past the one in a million category, almost to a one in ten million category. That makes her very special indeed...

Hemispherical

@FullStrike said:
Good subject, but I agree with others about the design. Nothing special. But at least its better looking than the Classic Eunice Shriver Coin.

Too bad they couldn't throw in a Judith Resnick to honor the rest of the Crew.

But then she wasn't anything spacial. Just a good looking Woman Astronaut.

Brains and brawn, too.

MasonG

@WillieBoyd2 said:
The coin is also a reminder of a spectacular technology failure.

It was a management failure, not a technology failure. The engineers recommended postponing the launch.

Zoins

Interesting. I never heard of FIRST before but they seem to be fairly influential.

The U.S. Mint will sell the coins to the public at a price that will incorporate the face value of the coins ($1) and the cost of their design and issue, as well as a $10 surcharge per coin to benefit FIRST, or For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, an organization that uses robotics competitions to engage children in pursuing opportunities in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

Here's their website:

• https://www.firstinspires.org/