I have a daughter working toward her application for astronaut training. While in the 10th grade she hesitantly mentioned wanting to be an astronaut. I told her about Sonny and told her to go for it. So far she has her Masters and has worked as a systems engineer on the Fluids & Combustion Facility Laboratory module for the ISS. She’s just been hired as a systems engineer for the Service Module of the CEV (Crew Exploration Vehicle), the Shuttle replacement.
I imagine that Sonny has inspired many other young people to go for it.
There are quite a few schools in that area named for him. There are ‘Christa McAuliffe’ schools everywhere, including here, and I don’t mean to take away from her, but it’s kinda cool to have known someone for whom a school is named.
Right now, my biggest regret is that I didn’t go to either the Naval Academy and the Air Force Academy to be a pilot...