Mr. Russell’s 3rd Class 2022/2023 were learning about the NASA Space Shuttles Challenger and Columbia. Both shuttles suffered terrible accidents and all the astronauts were killed. Challenger exploded 73 seconds after take off, on January 28th, 1986. The accident shocked the world, and it turned out that there was a design flaw that caused the accident. Space Shuttle Columbia suffered damage that wasn’t thought to be big or important enough to worry about on lift-off in January 2003, but it turned out that a hole had been poked in Columbia’s wing, and when the astronauts attempted to return to Earth, the boiling gases of the atmosphere melted the wing, and Columbia broke apart.

After learning about the Space Shuttles and the retirement of the shuttles in 2011, the class made 3D Space Shuttle replicas using card, glue, and some recycled materials. Check out the boys at work at the top of the page and see these super Space Shuttles, made and held by the 3rd Class boys, in the gallery below: