Jacksonville’s Teacher in the Space Program

Many of us applied for the Teacher in Space program back-in-the-day.  Teachers were invited to fill out some paperwork in order to be considered for the  NASA space program.  The paperwork was done by hand and mailed in.  Having been a teacher for only about 9 years I applied anyhow.   After a time, a letter was sent from NASA indicating if a person was in the running for a spot with NASA and the Teacher in Space program.  

Mike Reynolds was born on March 30, 1954. He was a Jacksonville teacher who had grown up in Duval County and ended up being one of the final five contestants.  He had attended Duval County schools and began teaching at Duncan U. Fletcher High School. Later, he left town to attend Thomas Edison State College in New Jersey and in 1982 had returned to receive a Masters at the University of North Florida right here in our city.  He later received a Doctorate in science education and astronomy in 1990 from UF.

In 1985 Reynolds had applied for the Teacher in Space program and became one of the top 5 candidates.  In 1986, Reynolds was teacher of the year at Fletcher High and from there he traveled to the Kennedy space center to be a part of the teacher in space program events and later would be invited to watch the Challenger space shuttle blast off into space.

On this cold day, January 28, 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger with 7 NASA astronauts aboard, lost their lives in a shuttle disaster only 73 seconds after take off.  The cause of the explosion was cold weather when the 0-ring seal failed.  It was a sad day for all of America and even the world. Jacksonville residents mourned the loss.

Mike Reynolds went on to work  at Florida State College, Chabot Space and Science center, Meade Instruments and the Association of Lunar and Planetary Observation. He died October 15, 2019 at the age of 65. He had spent his whole career in the science, astronomy and in the education field.

For me, I probably could not have figured out the math.

See you tomorrow,

Nan

In honor of those who lost their lives, we name them and thank them for their service:

The last Challenger mission, dubbed STS-51L, was commanded by Francis R. “Dick” Scobee and piloted by Michael J. Smith. The other crew members on board were mission specialists Ronald E. McNair; Ellison S. Onizuka, and Judith A. Resnik; payload specialist Gregory B. Jarvis; and teacher S. Christa McAuliffe. (Credit: NASA).