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| Planetarium to receive prisoner-built replica of doomed shuttle |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 05/24/2004 |
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Displayed among model boats, wooden furniture and knickknacks at the Maine State Prison showroom was a one-of-a-kind item with a prized place in the window. The scale model of the space shuttle Challenger _ six feet long and nearly four feet wide _ was handmade from strips of basswood with painstaking attention to detail, down to the outline of individual heat-resistant tiles. The model was removed from its perch last Thursday for delivery to the Christa McAuliffe Planetarium in Concord, N.H, where it will hang in the lobby. "I´m completely delighted," said Jeanne Gerulskis, the planetarium´s executive director. "You can tell people all you want about the Challenger. But seeing it in three dimensions really makes it come alive." Planetarium officials put in a request for the model after seeing a smaller version of the Challenger created at the prison. The first model was commissioned at the behest of Ray Griffin, administrator for the McAuliffe/Challenger Center at Framingham State College in the town of McAuliffe´s birth in Massachusetts. McAuliffe, a New Hampshire teacher who was supposed to be the first U.S. educator to travel in space, died along with six other crew members when the Challenger exploded after liftoff on Jan. 28, 1986. |
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