Through them, the country witnessed an explosion that killed the seven Challenger astronauts and ended the national belief that little could go wrong in the space program.

George D. Nelson, the third mission specialist aboard, said, "our place in the heavens makes us feel closer" to the seven Challenger astronauts.

There is the picture of President Reagan and June Scobee raising their faces to the sky at the memorial services for the Challenger astronauts.

It includes 2,213 condos on streets named for the late Challenger astronauts.

"That the Challenger astronauts hadn't died in the explosion," he said, not really paying attention to the conversation.

"Why did the NASA review board fire you when you told them that some of the Challenger astronauts had survived the initial explosion?"

The Challenger astronauts died in ascent while the solid-fuel rocket boosters were still firing and attached to the shuttle.

The family of one Challenger astronaut, Michael J. Smith, disputed this policy in a lawsuit, but the suit was rejected by the courts.

Last month the department raised the privacy issue in refusing to disclose details of the settlements reached with the families of four of the Challenger astronauts.

And with the deaths of the Challenger astronauts, the corps that had numbered 101 has diminished to 85.