South Carolina H 4987: Latta Dixie Ponytail Softball team

Bill Text

2025-2026 Bill 4987 Text of Previous Version (Jan. 22, 2026) - South Carolina Legislature Online 

South Carolina General Assembly
126th Session, 2025-2026

Bill 4987

Indicates Matter Stricken
Indicates New Matter

(Text matches printed bills. Document has been reformatted to meet World Wide Web specifications.)

A house RESOLUTION

to commemorate the fortieth 
anniversary of the tragic explosion of the Challenger space Shuttle, and 
to remember the annual designation of October 21 as "ronald McNair Day" in 
South Carolina.

Whereas, forty years ago, a hopeful nation watched the Challenger 
shuttle take off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, and then cried in disbelief as 
the spaceship exploded seventy-three seconds into its flight. School children 
across the country and their teachers, businessmen and women, housewives, and 
shoppers witnessed via live television the horrific conclusion of the hopes and 
dreams of the seven souls aboard; and

Whereas, the crew was scheduled to deploy a commercial communications 
satellite and study Halley's Comet while they were in orbit, in addition to 
taking schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe into space under the Teacher in Space 
Project, which resulted in a higher-than-usual media interest in and coverage 
of the mission; and

Whereas, on January 28, 1986, the spacecraft disintegrated 46,000 
feet above the Atlantic Ocean just off the coast. It was the first fatal 
accident involving an American spacecraft while in flight. The mission, 
designated STS-51-L, was the tenth flight for the orbiter and the twenty-fifth 
flight of the Space Shuttle fleet; and

Whereas, the disaster resulted in a 32-month hiatus in the Space 
Shuttle program, and the Rogers Commission was created to investigate the 
accident. The commission criticized NASA's organizational culture and 
decision-making processes that had contributed to the accident. Test data since 
1977 had demonstrated a potentially catastrophic flaw in the SRBs' O-rings, but 
neither the SRB manufacturer nor NASA had addressed this known defect. NASA 
managers also disregarded engineers' warnings about the dangers of launching in 
low temperatures and did not report these concerns to superiors; and

Whereas, as a result of this disaster, NASA established the Office of 
Safety, Reliability, and Quality Assurance, and arranged for deployment of 
commercial satellites from expendable launch vehicles rather than from a crewed 
orbiter. To replace the Challenger, the construction of a new Space 
Shuttle orbiter, Endeavour, was approved in 1987, which first flew in 
1992. Subsequent missions were launched with redesigned SRBs and their crews 
wore pressurized suits during ascent and reentry; and

Whereas, one of the astronauts who perished in the flight was South 
Carolina native Ronald Erwin McNair. Born in Lake City on October 21, 1950, he 
was the son of Pearl McNair, a high school teacher, and Carl C. McNair, an auto 
mechanic; and

Whereas, he attended Lake City Elementary School and graduated as 
valedictorian from Carver High School in 1967. In 1971, he earned a bachelor's degree 
in physics, magna cum laude, from the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical 
State University in Greensboro, North Carolina, and a doctorate in physics in 
1976 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The same year he won the 
AAU Karate gold medal and subsequently earned a fifth degree black belt in 
karate; and

Whereas, Dr. McNair also received four honorary doctorates, as well 
as a score of fellowships and commendations. He became a staff physicist at the 
Hughes Research Lab in Malibu, California. In 1978, he was selected as one of thirty-five 
applicants from a pool of ten thousand for the NASA astronaut program. Dr. McNair 
flew as a mission specialist on STS-41-B aboard Challenger from February 
3 to 11, 1984, the second African American to fly in space. On January 28, 
1986, he was one of three mission specialists in a crew of seven. McNair crater 
on the Moon is named in his memory; and

Whereas, on March 12, 2018, the South Carolina Legislature passed 
2018 Act No. 141 (H. 4858) into law to designate every October 21 as "Ronald 
McNair Day" in the Palmetto State. Now, therefore,

Be it resolved by the House of 
Representatives:

That the members of the South Carolina House 
of Representatives, by this resolution, commemorate the fortieth 
anniversary of the tragic explosion of the Challenger spacecraft, and 
remember the annual designation of October 21 as "Ronald McNair Day" in South 
Carolina.

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