It has been 25 years since the Challenger space shuttle broke apart over the Atlantic Ocean killing all of its crew members.

On Thursday, Jan. 27, West Virginia University’s” Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program”:http://mcnair.wvu.edu/ will commemorate the anniversary with retired astronaut Captain Jon McBride. He will speak to public and WVU community members in the National Research Center for Coal and Energy’s conference room at 7 p.m.

McBride, a 1964 graduate of WVU’s College of Engineering and Mineral Resources, will speak about his time as an astronaut and the life of Ronald E. McNair in a presentation titled “Triumph to Tragedy to Triumph.” McNair was one of the astronauts that lost his life on the Challenger.

“We encourage not only the WVU community, but also local families to attend the event with their children so they could meet the astronaut, and also learn about a part of U.S. history and the McNair scholars program,” said Betty Mei, assistant director of WVU’s McNair scholars program. “The sacrifice which Dr. Ronald E. McNair made has brought wonderful changes in many students’ lives. This is a special time to give tribute to Dr. McNair.”

McBride began his career as an astronaut at NASA in 1979. He served as lead chase pilot for the maiden voyage of Columbia, software verification in the Shuttle Integration Laboratory, capsule communicator, Flight Data File manager and orbital rendezvous procedure development.

He was scheduled to command a crew in March 1986, but his flight was one of many deferred by NASA after the Challenger accident earlier that year.

Currently McBride is a member of the Kennedy Space Center Astronaut Encounter team. He retired from NASA and the Navy in 1989. He has logged more than 8,800 hours flying time, including 4,700 hours in jet aircraft.

The U.S. Congress launched the Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program in McNair’s memory shortly after the accident occurred.

The program, which targets low-income, first-generation and underrepresented students, encourages undergraduate students to enroll in graduate studies in order to earn a doctoral degree.

For more information on WVU’s McNair scholars program, visit http://mcnair.wvu.edu/ .

-WVU-

cd/01/18/11

CONTACT: Betty Mei, McNair Scholars Program
304-293-4316, Betty.Mei@mail.wvu.edu