South Carolina 2025-2026 Regular Session Status: Passed House Bipartisan · 3 R · 2 D cosponsors

H 4987 — Commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Challenger explosion

Last action — Introduced and adopted

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  1. ✓
    Introduced
  2. ✓
    In Committee
  3. 3
    Passed House
  4. 4
    Passed Senate
  5. 5
    To Executive
  6. 6
    Enacted

This bill has passed the House. Introduced January 22, 2026. It now moves to the second chamber.

Next likely step: consideration and a floor vote in the Senate.

Prognosis

Advancing 54% · moderate confidence

Where this bill stands today.

Odds of enactment

High

How often bills like it became law.

  • Passed House

    Current position in the legislative process.

  • 124 sponsors

    124 primary, 0 co-sponsors signed on.

  • Bipartisan support

    Sponsored across 2 parties (3 R · 2 D) — cross-party backing.

Prognosis reads this bill's own signals — stage, sponsorship breadth, committee status, recorded votes and cross-state momentum. Odds come from a model trained on which bills have become law.

Summary

A HOUSE RESOLUTION TO COMMEMORATE THE FORTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE TRAGIC EXPLOSION OF THE CHALLENGER SPACE SHUTTLE, AND TO REMEMBER THE ANNUAL DESIGNATION OF OCTOBER 21 AS "RONALD MCNAIR DAY" IN SOUTH CAROLINA.

Bill Text

What changed in the latest version

69 added · 9 removed

69 line(s) added, 9 removed.

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2025-2026 Bill 4987 Text of Previous Version (Jan.
22, 2026) - South Carolina Legislature Online South Carolina General Assembly126th Session, 2025-2026Bill 4987Indicates Matter StrickenIndicates New Matter(Text matches printed bills.
Document has been reformatted to meet World Wide Web specifications.)                 A house RESOLUTION   to commemorate the fortieth anniversary of the tragic explosion of the Challenger space Shuttle, and to remember the annual designation of October 21 as "ronald McNair Day" in South Carolina.
  Whereas, forty years ago, a hopeful nation watched the Challenger shuttle take off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, and then cried in disbelief as the spaceship exploded seventy-three seconds into its flight.
School children across the country and their teachers, businessmen and women, housewives, and shoppers witnessed via live television the horrific conclusion of the hopes and dreams of the seven souls aboard;
and   Whereas, the crew was scheduled to deploy a commercial communications satellite and study Halley's Comet while they were in orbit, in addition to taking schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe into space under the Teacher in Space Project, which resulted in a higher-than-usual media interest in and coverage of the mission;
and   Whereas, on January 28, 1986, the spacecraft disintegrated 46,000 feet above the Atlantic Ocean just off the coast.
It was the first fatal accident involving an American spacecraft while in flight.
The mission, designated STS-51-L, was the tenth flight for the orbiter and the twenty-fifth flight of the Space Shuttle fleet;
and   Whereas, the disaster resulted in a 32-month hiatus in the Space Shuttle program, and the Rogers Commission was created to investigate the accident.
The commission criticized NASA's organizational culture and decision-making processes that had contributed to the accident.
Test data since had demonstrated a potentially catastrophic flaw in the SRBs' O-rings, but neither the SRB manufacturer nor NASA had addressed this known defect.
NASA managers also disregarded engineers' warnings about the dangers of launching in low temperatures and did not report these concerns to superiors;
and   Whereas, as a result of this disaster, NASA established the Office of Safety, Reliability, and Quality Assurance, and arranged for deployment of commercial satellites from expendable launch vehicles rather than from a crewed orbiter.
To replace the Challenger, the construction of a new Space Shuttle orbiter, Endeavour, was approved in 1987, which first flew in 1992.
Subsequent missions were launched with redesigned SRBs and their crews wore pressurized suits during ascent and reentry;
and   Whereas, one of the astronauts who perished in the flight was South Carolina native Ronald Erwin McNair.
Born in Lake City on October 21, 1950, he was the son of Pearl McNair, a high school teacher, and Carl C.
McNair, an auto mechanic;
and   Whereas, he attended Lake City Elementary School and graduated as valedictorian from Carver High School in 1967.
In 1971, he earned a bachelor's degree in physics, magna cum laude, from the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University in Greensboro, North Carolina, and a doctorate in physics in from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The same year he won the AAU Karate gold medal and subsequently earned a fifth degree black belt in karate;
and   Whereas, Dr.
McNair also received four honorary doctorates, as well as a score of fellowships and commendations.
He became a staff physicist at the Hughes Research Lab in Malibu, California.
In 1978, he was selected as one of thirty-five applicants from a pool of ten thousand for the NASA astronaut program.
Dr.
McNair flew as a mission specialist on STS-41-B aboard Challenger from February to 11, 1984, the second African American to fly in space.
On January 28, 1986, he was one of three mission specialists in a crew of seven.
McNair crater on the Moon is named in his memory;
and   Whereas, on March 12, 2018, the South Carolina Legislature passed Act No.
141 (H.
4858) into law to designate every October 21 as "Ronald McNair Day" in the Palmetto State.
Now, therefore,   Be it resolved by the House of Representatives:
  That the members of the South Carolina House of Representatives, by this resolution, commemorate the fortieth anniversary of the tragic explosion of the Challenger spacecraft, and remember the annual designation of October 21 as "Ronald McNair Day" in South Carolina.
----XX---- This web page was last updated on January 22, 2026 at 10:28 AM
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Action History

  1. Introduced and adopted

Sponsors

Sponsorship breakdown

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124 sponsors · 0 co-sponsors · 46 not signed on

Sponsors (124)

Co-sponsors (0)

None.

Not signed on (46)

46 members have not signed on to this bill.

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"Not signed on" means a member has not sponsored or co-sponsored this bill — it does not imply opposition. Members flagged Voted No have a recorded No vote on this bill.

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Frequently asked questions

What does H 4987 do?
A HOUSE RESOLUTION TO COMMEMORATE THE FORTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE TRAGIC EXPLOSION OF THE CHALLENGER SPACE SHUTTLE, AND TO REMEMBER THE ANNUAL DESIGNATION OF OCTOBER 21 AS "RONALD MCNAIR DAY" IN SOUTH CAROLINA.
Who sponsors H 4987?
H 4987 is sponsored by Representative Roger K. Kirby, Representative Terry Alexander, Representative Jackie E. "Coach" Hayes, Representative Wallace H. "Jay" Jordan, Jr., Representative Phillip D. Lowe, Representative Robert Q. Williams, Representative Carl L. Anderson, Representative Lucas Atkinson, Representative William H. Bailey, Representative Nathan Ballentine, Representative Justin T. Bamberg, Representative Bruce W. Bannister, Representative Heather Bauer, Representative Thomas Beach, Representative Beth E. Bernstein, Representative Phillip Bowers, Representative Jeff Bradley, Representative Gary S. Brewer, Jr., T. Case Brittain, Jr. (Republican), Representative James Mikell "Mike" Burns, Representative Joseph M. "Joe" Bustos, Representative Paula Rawl Calhoon, Representative Micajah P. "Micah" Caskey IV, Representative Donald G. "Don" Chapman, Representative William M. "Bill" Chumley, Representative William "Bill" Clyburn, Representative Gilda Cobb-Hunter, Representative Neal A. Collins, Representative Brandon L. Cox, Representative Heather Ammons Crawford, Representative April Cromer, Representative Sylleste H. Davis, Representative Chandra E. Dillard, Representative Adam L. Duncan, Representative Sarita L. Edgerton, Representative Shannon S. Erickson, Representative Cally R. "Cal" Forrest, Jr., Stephen D. Frank (Republican), Representative Craig A. Gagnon, Representative Kambrell H. Garvin, Representative Gil Gatch, Representative Daniel Gibson, Representative Leon D. "Doug" Gilliam, Representative Wendell G. Gilliard, Representative Thomas Lee Gilreath, Representative Jerry N. Govan, Jr., Representative Hamilton R. Grant, Representative Thomas Duval "Val" Guest, Jr., Representative Brandon Guffey, Representative Patrick B. Haddon, Representative William "Bill" Hager, Representative Kevin Hardee, Representative Robert J. "Rob" Harris, Representative Christopher R. "Chris" Hart, Representative Thomas F. "Tom" Hartnett, Jr., Representative Charles V. Hartz, Representative William G. "Bill" Herbkersman, Representative Lee Hewitt, Representative David R. Hiott, Representative Greg Ford, Representative William M. "Bill" Hixon, Representative Harriet A. Holman, Representative Lonnie Hosey, Representative Leon Howard, Representative William C. "Chris" Huff, J.E. Johnson, J.L. Johnson, Representative Wendell K. Jones, Representative John Gregory "Jay" Kilmartin, Representative John Richard C. King, Representative Kathy Landing, Representative M. Brian Lawson, Representative Thomas R. "Randy" Ligon, Representative Steven Wayne Long, Jason Luck (Democrat), Representative Josiah Magnuson, Representative David Martin, Representative Donald Ryan McCabe, Jr., Representative John R. McCravy III, Representative Annie E. McDaniel, Representative Timothy A. "Tim" McGinnis, Representative Cody T. Mitchell, Representative W. Scott Montgomery IV, Representative JA Moore, Representative John T. Lastinger, Jr., Representative Travis A. Moore, Representative T. Alan Morgan, Jr., Representative Dennis C. Moss, Representative Mike M. Neese, Representative Brandon Newton, Representative Wm. Weston J. Newton, Representative Melissa Lackey Oremus, Representative Jordan S. Pace, Representative Fawn M. Pedalino, Representative Thomas E. "Tommy" Pope, Representative Luke S. Rankin, Representative Robert T. Reese, Representative Michael F. Rivers, Sr., Representative Robby Robbins, Representative Seth Rose, Representative J. Todd Rutherford, Representative Richard Blake Sanders, Carla M. Schuessler (Republican), Representative Heath Sessions, Tiffany R. Spann-Wilder (Democrat), Representative Leonidas E. "Leon" Stavrinakis, Representative Bill Taylor, Representative James E. Teeple, Representative Jackie R. Terribile, Representative David Vaughan, Representative Courtney S. Waters, Representative G. Murrell Smith, Jr., Representative Keishan M. Scott, Representative J. David Weeks, Representative Elizabeth "Spencer" Wetmore, Representative Joseph S. "Joe" White, Representative William R. "Bill" Whitmire, Representative Paul B. Wickensimer, Representative Mark N. Willis, Representative Chris Wooten, Representative Richard L. "Richie" Yow, Henderson-Myers, Rosalyn D., Representative Marvin "Mark" Smith, and Representative Dianne Mitchell.
What is the current status of H 4987?
This bill has passed the House. Introduced January 22, 2026. It now moves to the second chamber.
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