It's been nearly 40 years since this history-making glider fragment — not much bigger than your hand — headed into orbit only to end up in one of the world's worst space disasters.
"We just heard through Dad that he was pretty famous and he was flying and he crashed into a mountain." Lieutenant General Scobee was one of seven astronauts on NASA's space shuttle Challenger that lifted off from Cape Canaveral in Florida in January 1986. The recovered glider fragment was returned to Bundaberg a year later in 1987 when Lieutenant General Scobee's widow, June Scobee, visited Australia.He said the historical piece, on display in the Hinkler Hall of Aviation over the past four decades, symbolised the progress in aviation and space exploration."He was at the very cutting edge of aviation development.