40 years after Challenger disaster, SC astronaut continues to inspire students

By: Skylar Laird

Outlets: South Carolina Daily Gazette

Published: January 29, 2026

Words: 1,367

Last Updated: 3 weeks, 2 days ago

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LAKE CITY — Forty years later, Cheryl McNair remembers the shock of watching the Challenger space shuttle fall to pieces with her husband, astronaut Ronald McNair, onboard.

“Now what?” Cheryl McNair, now in her 70s, remembers thinking. “Now that it has happened, now what?”

In the four decades since the first fatal in-flight disaster in NASA’s history, McNair has had to come up with the answer to that question.

On Thursday, the day after the …

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