January 28, 2008
Local teacher almost joined doomed Challenger crew
By O.C. Stonestreet
Nearly 22 years ago, on Jan. 28, 1986, many Americans were watching TV, glued to their sets, as the space shuttle Challenger lifted off its launch pad at Cape Canaveral, Fla., and began climbing into the infinite blue of the Florida sky.
Everything looked good until 73 seconds after lift-off, when the shuttle and the rocket it was attached to became a fireball nine miles in the air.
Americans, by and large, had become complacent, believing that shuttle launches were no more dangerous than starting the family sedan and driving to the supermarket.
For one local woman, though, the thought that went through her head was: “That could have been me in the shuttle.”
Martha Holland Dobson, then a French teacher at Troutman and Brawley middle schools, had been in the final five North Carolina teacher candidates vying for a seat aboard the shuttle. Each state was responsible for choosing a teacher representative to become a “mission specialist” on NASA’s Challenger flight, a chance to be America’s first “Teacher in Space.”
“(Sharon Christa) McAuliffe and I have the exact same birthday, Sept. 2, 1948. Ben and I were on our honeymoon at Hilton Head and were watching the TV when we saw the Challenger explode,” recalled Dobson, a Statesville native who lives in North Iredell.
“I think about the Challenger and its crew every year, as it’s near our anniversary and Ben’s birthday.”
The Challenger had become “Old Reliable” to NASA. The spacecraft first flew in 1983 and had completed nine missions without a major problem. During this time, the craft had been home to 60 astronauts, had been in space 62 days, had orbited our planet 995 times and had traveled a total of almost 26 million miles.
Originally scheduled for a launch on at 3:43 p.m. Jan. 22, the launch was delayed and rescheduled at least six times due to weather and technical problems.
Instead of Martha Dobson, America’s first teacher in space aboard the Challenger was Sharon Christa McAuliffe, a Boston, Massachusetts-born, New Hampshire social studies teacher.
Understandably, McAuliffe had been excited about her selection from more than 11,000 applicants from the education profession. “I watched the Space Age being born and I would like to participate,” McAuliffe said.
Besides McAuliffe, the Challenger crew consisted of mission commander Francis R. Scobee; pilot Michael J. Smith; mission specialists Ronald E. McNair, Ellison S. Onizuka, and Judith A. Resnik; and payload specialist Gregory B. Jarvis. McAuliffe was also listed as a payload specialist.
The Rogers Commission was appointed by President Reagan to determine the cause of the tragedy. A faulty seal has been blamed for the multi-million dollar, seven-life disaster, an O-ring deformed by the unseasonal cold weather that allowed hot gases to burn through and ignite an external fuel tank.
Dobson graduated from States-ville High School in 1966, attended St. Andrew’s Presbyterian College in Laurinburg for two years and graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill with a degree in French education in 1970. She also completed a six-week French immersion class at McGill University in Montreal, Canada.
“For the shuttle program I had to prepare a portfolio, write essays and come up with a proposed project to be partly done aboard the shuttle. I had to supply references and was interviewed at the Department of Public Instruction in Raleigh.
“I grew up in the Space Age, saw Neil Armstrong walk on the moon in 1969. I’ve always been a risk-taker, an out-of-the-way traveler. I think that to go into space, to see the Earth from that vantage point, would be an awesome experience. Besides, who knows what I could use in a classroom later? That kind of experience would make a difference in my life, and had I been chosen, perhaps in the world. It was an honor to have made it as far as I did in the selection process.”
Dobson had already done a bit of traveling on old Terra at ground level. Employed by ARAMCO Oil Company in Saudi Arabia for three years, she had taught French to the children of Americans working in that country and English to Saudi men.
She had already been in school in Canada, had visited most of the countries in Europe and had been to Egypt, Pakistan, Iran, Bahrain, Thailand, Singapore and Hong Kong. Having a background in other languages and having international experience probably helped her in being considered for the Astronaut Corps, she said.
Dobson is not sad she wasn’t chosen, even if the Challen-ger mission with McAuliffe aboard had been successful.
“I met many talented, interesting people as a result of being considered for the program and have gained a lot by networking and sharing.
“A lot of doors opened to me because of my involvement in the Teacher in Space program, even though I didn’t make the final cut,” said Dobson.
“As a result of being among the North Carolina finalists I became a Christa McAuliffe Fellow in 1989, a program of the federal Department of Education which worked with Christa McAuliffe’s mother. The fellowship gave a grant of $15,000 to $20,000 for a teacher to complete a project within a year.
“My project was to develop ways to teach a foreign language to dyslexic children, and some of the information I found and developed works well in teaching students who are not dyslexic or students for whom English is a foreign language.
“I used some of my McAuliffe Fellow research in pilot programs at Pressley Elementary School in Statesville and with students in Forsyth County. I also use it in Yadkin County where I currently teach.”
Had she ever considered the possibility of disaster when she applied to be the first teacher in space? “Not really,” she replied, “I should have thought about it, but I’m a risk-taker. People said I was crazy to travel in the Middle East as a single female. If you think about all that can go wrong, you won’t do anything.”
If offered another chance to ride the shuttle, would she take it? Dobson pauses for a moment and says, “Well, I’ve always had an itchy foot, I love to travel. I’d have to think about it.”
She can’t conceal the widening grin on her face.
