Space Shuttle Challenger disaster recent, real-life Space Shuttle "Challenger" disaster. Punky and her classmates watched the live coverage of the shuttle launch in Mike Fulton's class. After the accident occurred, Punky is traumatized, and finds her dreams to become an astronaut are crushed. She writes a letter to NASA, and is visited by special guest star Buzz Aldrin. Although the episode received high ratings, NBC would, in the following weeks, decide to cancel the show. On the evening of April 5, 1986, the "Rendez-vous Houston" concert commemorated and celebrated the crew of the "Challenger." It featured a live performance by musician Jean Michel Jarre,
Space Shuttle America and the ride ends. The fictional events take place in 2094. The movie was shown for a short while at Six Flags Over Texas, and was made by DreamQuest Images. Outside the building that houses the queue and the ride itself is a fiberglass mock-up of a Space Shuttle orbiter that has authentic "tiles" used in actual space shuttle orbiters. The shuttle was built to the exact scale of the real STS craft , but is neither an official NASA shuttle nor capable of spaceflight. The building that shows Space Shuttle America also showed: High operating costs and dwindling popularity