Remembering Challenger astronaut Ronald McNair, 30 years after tragedy
Mark Davis and Marlon A. Walker contributed to this story
It's been 30 years since Ronald McNair and the entire crew of the space shuttle Challenger died, soon after they took off Jan. 28, 1986, as they raced for the stars.
But in 2013, McNair's brother Carl, who lives in Atlanta, remembered him a different way when speaking to StoryCorps, a New York-based organization that has conducted more than 45,000 interviews, all preserved in the Library of Congress.
Related: Local school remembers McNair, its namesake
Tributes to the astronaut are also scattered across metro Atlanta, especially in DeKalb County, where three schools bear his name. Carl started the McNair Achievement Programs and the Dr. Ronald E. McNair Foundation, which allows hundreds of students annually to learn through summer camp activities based in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).
"That's what's so remarkable about Ronald McNair," Jeremy Helton, a spokesman for StoryCorps, told the AJC's Mark Davis in 2013.
Raised in a small town in central South Carolina, McNair went on to get a doctorate in physics, Helton noted: “The animation … shows that people can aspire to something through hard work and determination.”
