South Carolina S 847: Challenger Space Shuttle and Ronald McNair Day

Bill Text

2025-2026 Bill 847 Text of Previous Version (Jan. 28, 2026) - South Carolina Legislature Online 

South Carolina General Assembly
126th Session, 2025-2026

Bill 847

Indicates Matter Stricken
Indicates New Matter

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

A senate RESOLUTION

to commemorate the fortieth anniversary of the 
tragic explosion of the Challenger space Shuttle, and to recognize October 21, 
2026, 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, shoppers, and people at home 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 
higher-than-usual media coverage of the mission; and

Whereas, on January 28, 
1986, the spacecraft disintegrated forty-six thousand feet above the Atlantic 
Ocean. 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 thirty-two-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, Dr. 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, Dr. McNair attended 
Lake City Elementary School and graduated as valedictorian from Carver High 
School. In 1967, he began college at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical 
State University and pledged the Omega Psi Phi fraternity through the Mu Psi 
Chapter in 1969. In 1971, he earned a bachelor's degree in physics and 
graduated magna cum laude. He earned a doctorate in physics in 1976 from the 
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 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 3-11, 
1984, and was 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 Senate:

That the members of the 
South Carolina Senate, by this resolution, 
commemorate the fortieth anniversary of the tragic explosion of the Challenger 
spacecraft, and recognize October 21, 2026, as "Ronald McNair Day" in 
South Carolina. 

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