The Ronald McNair Life History Center in Lake City honors the legacy of a local astronaut
Jodi Helmer
The world watched as the Space Shuttle Challenger launched from Kennedy Space Center on January 28, 1986.
Just 73 seconds into the flight, the Challenger broke apart in the air and the pieces fell 46,000 feet into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Cape Canaveral, Florida. All seven crew members aboard the flight were killed. Ronald McNair was one of the NASA astronauts who lost his life in the Challenger disaster.
In 1978, McNair was selected from a pool of 10,000 applicants to join the NASA astronaut program and made his first trip to space as a mission specialist aboard the Challenger in 1984. He was the second African American astronaut to go to space.
The University of South Carolina called McNair “the unlikeliest of heroes” but the events that led to his career as an astronaut tell a different story.
On a mission to make a difference
McNair grew up in Lake City. His brother, Carl McNair, remembers McNair having a strong interest in science and dreaming about going to space; he was so intent on pursuing that passion that he snuck out of the house and walked to the library where he chose several math and science books.
Carl McNair told NPR that as his nine-year-old brother waited in line to check out the books, the librarian asked him to leave, telling him, “The library is not for coloreds” and threatened to call the police. McNair waited and, when the police arrived, he was allowed to go home with the books.
In the NPR article, Carl McNair recalled that his brother saw “science as a possibility” but admits that he never believed that he would achieve his dream of going to space because astronauts were celebrities like Neil Armstrong. He told the reporter, “how was a colored boy from South Carolina—wearing glasses, never flew a plane—how was he gonna become an astronaut?”
It was that childhood passion for science that put McNair on a path to higher education. He was the valedictorian of the Carver High School class of 1967; he graduated from North Carolina A&T University with a bachelor of science and earned a PhD in physics from MIT before joining NASA. North Carolina A&T and the University of South Carolina later awarded McNair honorary doctorates.
In 2011, the building that once housed the library where McNair was almost banned from checking out books was dedicated as the Ronald McNair Life History Center.
Michael Cooper, who was the head librarian when the Washington Times wrote an article about the History Center in 2015, was a high school student at the time of the Challenger disaster but expressed amazement at the astronaut’s childhood tenacity.
Cooper told the paper, “Here was this little boy who had the strength to show his emotion toward books, the importance of books,” Cooper said. “To me, he was trying to open doors for other people his age. It was amazing this child did it, rather than an adult.”
A space odyssey
McNair spent the first part of his career working with lasers. At MIT, he performed experiments on chemical and high-pressure lasers and was later hired as a staff physicist at Hughes Research Laboratories in California where he contributed to the development of lasers that could separate isotopes and photochemistry utilizing nonlinear interactions in low-temperature liquids and optical pumping techniques.
In 1984, McNair completed his first flight as a NASA mission specialist. He was part of STS 41-B aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger that launched on February 3, 1984. As part of the mission, McNair worked alongside a crew of four fellow astronauts to deploy two Hughes 376 communication satellites and test in-flight sensors and computer programs.
STS 41-B was the first flight of the Manned Maneuvering Unit and the first time astronauts used the Canadian arm to position crewman around space shuttle’s payload bay; McNair operated the arm and was responsible for several mid-deck experiments, including acoustic levitation and chemical separation. The Challenger was in space for eight days. Upon its safe landing at Kennedy Space Center on February 11, 1984, McNair had logged a total of 191 hours in space.
His wife, Cheryl McNair Moore, told CBS News that her husband described the view of earth from space as, “…just so beautiful appearing without divisions or lines, peaceful he said. As he thought the Lord meant for us to live."
When he was not engaged in experiments aboard the Challenger, McNair, an accomplished musician, played his saxophone; he was the first astronaut to play a musical instrument in space. He planned to play a saxophone solo on his second Challenger mission as part of composer Jean Michel Jarre’s album, Rendez-Vous. As a tribute to the astronaut and musician, Jarre included Last Rendez-Vous, which became known as Ron’s Piece, as the last track on the album.
Keeping a legacy alive
The Ronald McNair Life History Center is filled with memorabilia that honors the life of the local astronaut. The photographs and artifacts tell the story of McNair’s life and pay tribute to his accomplishments.
At a 2011 vigil honoring the astronauts who lost their lives during the Challenger explosion, his daughter, Joy McNair told South Carolina Now, “It truly touches my heart to know that the Lake City community thinks so much of my father’s life and legacy, and the fact that they continue to keep it alive and honor him 25 years later is simply amazing.”
Lake City holds the vigil annually on January 28. In the future, the center hopes to expand to include a science and technology museum to help South Carolina students learn about space, physics and other science topics that McNair studied.
McNair logged numerous academic and professional achievements. He was a Presidential Scholar and Ford Foundation Fellow; the National Society of Black Professional Engineers named him a Distinguished National Scientist. McNair was inducted into the South Carolina Hall of Fame in 1997.
In recognition of his passion for learning and higher education, the U.S. Department of Education created the Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program; Congress funded the program to encourage minority and low-income, first-generation college students to pursue graduate education and doctoral degrees.
In 2015, former Lake City Mayor Lovith Anderson told the Manning Times that the center keeps McNair’s legacy alive, adding, “The life center, it says a lot for this community and how we’ve grown.”
McNair overcame numerous obstacles to pursue his dreams and encouraged others to do the same. The Ronald McNair Life History Center continues that work.
McNair left behind a wife, Cheryl McNair, and two children. His widow founded the Challenger Center, a nonprofit organization focusing on science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education to inspire students through hands-on learning opportunities.
Buildings across the nation were named (or renamed) to honor the astronaut, including The McNair Building at MIT and the McNair Science Center at Francis Marion University; there are also several public schools bearing his name and even a crater on the moon named the McNair Crater.
The University of South Carolina founded the McNair Aerospace Center in 2011 to support the state’s aerospace industry through aerospace education, research leadership and industry advancement. In a biography on their website, the University wrote, “[McNair’s] inspiring career was cut short in the Challenger space shuttle tragedy in 1986 [but] his legacy continues…”
SIDEBAR: Life at a Glance
1950: Born October 21 in Lake City, South Carolina.
1967: Graduated from Carver High School. The school was segregated until 1970.
1971: Graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor of science degree from North Carolina A&T University.
1971 to 1974: Named a Presidential Scholar and Ford Foundation Fellow.
1975: Named a NATO Fellow.
1976: Graduated from Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a PhD in physics. His dissertation was titled, “Energy Absorption and Vibrational Heating in Molecules Following Intense Laser Excitation.”
1978: Chosen from a pool of 10,000 applicants to complete the NASA astronaut training program.
1979: Earned several awards, including a service commendation from the Los Angeles Public School System, Distinguished Alumni Award and the National Society of Black Professional Engineers Distinguished National Scientist Award.
1984: Served as a mission specialist for STS-41-B aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger. The mission featured the first untethered space walk and McNair became the second African American astronaut to go to space.
1986: Served as a mission specialist, STS-51-L aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger, which exploded 73 seconds after launch. McNair died on January 28, 1986; he was 35 years old.