result of the cut backs, NASA has had tro!
             uble keeping the existing space shuttles' hardware kept up. The effects of the accident were numerous; the space program was shut down for three years. Also the effects on the NASA staff were immense, leaving a feeling of guilt and fear. On January 28, 1986, the space shuttle Challenger and it's crew embarked on a mission to broaden educational horizons and promote the advancement of scientific knowledge; their mission was cut short in one of the most tragic and most easily prevented tragedies in America's history in space.
             Before the accident, the 51-L (This mission's assigned number) mission was supposed to be remembered for many reasons. One reason was that this was to be the twenty-fifth space shuttle mission. Another reason was that this was to be the first shuttle launch from pad 39-b which hadn't been used since the Apollo missions. However, The major reason was this was to be the first crew to include a civilian member. Sharon Chista McAuliffe was chosen from a pool of 11,400 applicants. McAuliffe, 37, was a social studies teacher in Concord High School in New Hampshire. While in space, she planned to still teach two lessons entitled, "Where we've been, where we're going, why?", to her class. Then, at T plus 1:13, the mission and its crew became remembered for other, more disastrous reasons. An O-ring in the right SRB shattered in the extreme cold and began allowing liquid hydrogen to leak then explode incinerating the seven crew members, destroying the valuable payload, and bring!
             ing the space program to a halt for nearly three years. America listened a long ten seconds before "...the commentary was resumed in a tense monotone"(Lewis, p21);
             " Flight Controllers are looking very carefully at the situation. Obviously a major malfunction. We have no downlink. We have a report from the flight dynamics officer that the vehicle has...