Celebrity Graveland

April 5, 1949 – January 28, 1986

Judith A. Resnik was a certifiable genius. There was evidence of her intelligence throughout her childhood, culminating with her attaining a perfect score on her SAT exam in high school. She studied electrical engineering at Carnegie Mellon University and eventually obtained a PhD in the field from the University of Maryland…with honors, always. Her early career was spent with organizations like RCA and the National Institutes of Health. She helped the Navy design components for complicated radar and telemetry systems. At the urging of a friend, she also learned to pilot airplanes…getting perfect or near-perfect scores on her license exams – naturally. She was a gifted and brilliant individual and in 1978 she applied to be an astronaut at NASA.

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May 19, 1939 – January 28, 1986

Commander of the Space Shuttle Challenger on its ill-fated final mission, Francis Richard “Dick” Scobee was an Air Force pilot and astronaut. A combat pilot during the Vietnam war, Scobee became a test pilot and was eventually selected to be a part of NASA’s Space Shuttle Program. He piloted Challenger on a successful mission – his only other – two years prior to the disaster. On January 28th, 1986, after a number of weather-related delays and under high pressure to get the shuttle into space to inaugurate the Teacher In Space program, Challenger finally lifted off. Continue reading →