By https://x.com/rumpdumpler/status/2051338760109883888
NASA has confirmed reports that space officials discussed putting Big Bird on the space shuttle Challenger, before it was lost along with its entire crew in an explosion in 1986. But the space agency said the plan never got to the point of giving Caroll Spinney, the human who portrays the 8-foot-2 bird on the “Sesame Street” TV show, a spot on the passenger list.
why though
The Teacher in Space program that ended up picking Christa McAuliffe was intended to be a major outreach program for schoolchildren. The main reason so many people remember seeing the Challenger exploding was because the launch was live broadcast directly to and for classrooms. Sesame Street, as an extremely popular PBS educational program for children, was an obvious option to consider. A few years earlier there was a Big Bird in China TV special.
Thats exactly right. It really was a big deal. I remember the teacher having to go get a giant CRT TV from the AV room, having to wheel it into the classroom, someone to come hook it up to the cable system, get it all set up… We did all sorts of lessons about space for some days before, and I think we were supposed to do something more when she landed but since the alternative happened none of those planned lessons came to fruition. I think it affected a generation of Americans.
Gen X’s 9/11 (unironically)
She was supposed to broadcast lessons from space, showing and teaching about space. You should have been watching McAuliffe showing you cool stuff like the Dzhanibekov Effect for the next week or two on that giant CRT.
Oh that’s kinda sad