A Mission That Lasted a Lifetime

Iowa’s summer of 1993 is remembered for historic floods that shut down the capital city and surrounding communities, leaving limited roadways and no potable water for nearly two weeks. For me, that was the summer I found the career I didn’t know I was looking for.

I was 15 years old in 1986, standing in my high school hallways, when I heard the Space Shuttle Challenger had been lost. Like so many Americans, I was heartbroken and couldn’t stop thinking about Christa McAuliffe, the first Teacher in Space, who had been aboard.

But out of that loss, the families of the crew transformed the country’s collective sorrow into something hopeful. They founded Challenger Center, a nonprofit that puts kids in simulated space missions to help spark a passion for learning and science. To this day, the organization challenges young people to become scientists, engineers, communicators, and problem-solvers in lifelike missions to space, all while honoring the Challenger crew’s legacy of exploration and education.

The missions challenge students to communicate with their teammates, analyze scientific samples, solve unexpected emergencies, and work together to accomplish their objectives. They aren’t simply learning about science—they do science.

Just six years after the tragedy, the Science Center of Iowa (SCI) became home to Iowa’s first Challenger Learning Center—the nation’s tenth. The following infamous summer, I joined the team as an intern at SCI. I ran summer camps, performed science demonstrations for museum visitors, and helped facilitate space missions for students. For kids who’d seen the Challenger disaster happen, stepping into a mission control room was a different way of processing that history: not through grief, but through possibility.

I remember how proud I felt pulling on the blue flight suit before each mission I led. That internship gave me practical experience and confidence in hands-on science communication, but more importantly, it showed me the incredible power of immersive learning. Somehow, putting on that uniform made the experience feel real for me as well.

I was inspired to pursue a teaching position in Des Moines, where I wanted to bring the same sense of excitement and discovery into my own classroom.

My passion for space exploration stayed with me throughout my teaching career. The Iowa Space Grant Consortium sent me to Space Camp for Educators in Titusville, Florida, where I trained on both a moon-walking simulator and the multi-axis trainer and participated in mock space missions. It felt like an advanced version of the Challenger Center experience.

I also purchased my own blue flight suit. To honor Christa McAuliffe and the inspiration she continues to provide educators, I proudly added the Teacher in Space patch to my suit.

Back in my classroom, I looked for every opportunity to create a sense of wonder. One year, all 120 of my students built model rockets and launched them from an open field across the street from our school. On launch day, I wore my blue flight suit. It may have seemed like a small detail, but it helped make the experience feel authentic and memorable for my students. The power of experiential learning is a lesson I carry forward, one I first learned at the Challenger Learning Center.

After six years in the classroom, I left teaching to start a family, but my passion for science education never faded.

Years later, life brought me back to the Science Center of Iowa, this time in its new location as a member of the Science Learning team. Although the Challenger Learning Center did not make the move to the new building, its influence certainly did. Every STEM program I helped develop, every teacher workshop I facilitated, and every student I encouraged carried a small piece of what I had learned during those simulated missions.

Today, I serve as the Director of STEM Innovation at SCI. It still amazes me that the teenager who once wore a borrowed blue flight suit now leads STEM education programming at the very institution where that journey began.

Challenger Center taught me that extraordinary learning can happen when people communicate, solve problems together, and stay curious. Those lessons have guided every stage of my career. My time there inspired my passion for space and education, and today I have the privilege of passing that inspiration on to thousands of students, educators, and families throughout Iowa.

I am especially excited to see Challenger Center return to Iowa at Hawkeye Community College. More than thirty years ago, Iowa’s first Challenger Learning Center inspired one teenager to become a teacher, a lifelong science educator, and eventually a museum leader. I hope the students who walk through the doors of this new Challenger Center discover that same sense of wonder, confidence, and purpose.

Written by Jolie Pelds, Director of STEM Innovation at Science Center of Iowa