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Igniting a Child's Imagination by Sue Morrow Flanagan
Few of us can forge t the morni ng when the NASA space shu ttle Challenger exploded . Eight astronauts, heroes of our age, we re lost under the eyes of a nation watching on TV. America's children saw Chri sta McAuliffe , a beloved teacher, perish. Just as in other centuri es child ren dreamed of sai ling the high seas in search of new lands , today ' s child ren as pire to open the frontiers of space. The Challenger di saster paralyzed many of those dreams. In an effort to rekindle that interest, NASA gave the job of naming the ne w space shuttle to America ' s children. Recogni zing the monumental role maritime heritage has pl ayed in the wo rld 's hi story, NASA decided our space shuttles should be named after ships of research and exploration. They turned to the Counc il of Chief State School Officers for ass istance who , in turn , as ked the Nati onal Maritime Hi stori ca l Soc iety to act as a reference source for eac h state to check its entri es. Soon o ur phones were ringing off the hook with req uests fo r confirmations on dozens of ship names. Whil e the fi nal name for O rbiter Vehicle 105 , which will be launched in February, 1992, has yet to be announced, NASA is delighted with the results. "The program d id exactl y what we wanted it to do ," M uri el Thorne, Educational Program s Officer with NASA ' s Educationa l Affa irs Di vision, told Sea History. "These yo ungsters know their ships, that' s for sure." Indeed, one team of fo ur hi gh school boys who met regul arl y in the ir public library to ld NA SA that one of them didn ' t even know how to find the nonfi ction books in the library. " Now we all know the di ffe rence between a sloop, a fr igate, a clipper and a windj ammer. " NASA ' s " Name The Orbiter Contest" judged each entry on the name proposed (20%), and the quality of the educati onal project (80%). The name had to be easy to pronounce for transmi ssion, and had to capture the spirit of America ' s mi ssion in space. In all , over 71 ,000 students fo rmed 6, 164 teams rang ing in size from four students to 888- an entire school. They proposed 4 11 names and the ir entri es came from as fa r away as a State Department school in Taiwan to Nati ve American Schools, and from Puerto Rico to A las ka. Ameri -
Endeavour under repair on Cook 's First \'Oyage . She was stude nts' leadin g choice fo r the name of th e new space shuttle . can Samoa suggested Hoku-le' a, Hawa ii an fo r Ri sing Star. The most popular names were Endeavour--over 1,000 proposals; Victoria-580; and Resolution- 370 with Nautilus, Ca lypso, Adventure and Half Moon foll owin g. Native Ameri can children in Washington State ke pt NMHS staff bu sy searching for an e lusive ship named Los Indios until it was rea li zed they created it to re present their people's ro le in shaping Ame rica. Teams signed their entry essays with signatures rang ing fro m the wo bbl y scrawl of a first grader to the tight prec ision of a sixth grader. Other teams designed T-shirts, badges and buttons to promote their chosen name. Some stayed overnight on ships as part of the ir research. And one gro up staged a 24-hour shuttl e launch (w ith one hour off to go to the school basketball game) . A metal tro ll ey served as shuttl e when the orbiter soared down a school hallway into space. O thers conducted a dinner-time survey of randoml y chosen community members to document the popularity of their name. Another gro up cel ebrated Captain Cook 's birthday with cake and limeade, since limes pl ayed such a vital rol e in preventing scurvy . Several ingeni o us teams tested the ir name for tran smi ss ion quality with wa lkie-talkies or CBs. Each state he ld a selecti on process , then sent winning names to NASA. Community support was such that when one group of state winners couldn ' t afford the trip to Huntsville, Alabama, a local compan y fl ew them there in the corporate jet. Ameri ca ' s children scoured the ir libraries and wo rked together to name the new shuttle which will repl ace the ill -fated Challenger. But, more important, they breathed li fe back into the dream th at will guarantee the future of America's mi ss ion in space. They are tomorrow ' s Co lumbus, Mage llan or Capta in Cook . C hri sta McA uliffe would have been thrill ed . w
Forfurther information: Muriel Thorne, Educational Affairs Officer, Co uncil of Chief State School Officers, 400 North Capitol St. NW, Suite 379, Washington DC 20001; 202 393-8161. SEA HISTORY, SUMMER 1989