Dick Richards enjoyed the view and challenge, the splendor and wonder of exploring the skies.

For Richards, orbiting the Earth as a four-time Space Shuttle astronaut and dividing the clouds as a Navy captain and pilot was his job and passion.

After a long and fulfilling career, Richards has since come down to earth. In retirement, he often shares his experiences in space with the next generation of explorers.

On Wednesday, Richards captivated a gymnasium full of inquisitive kids and visited selected classrooms at Dick Scobee Elementary – the school that bears the name of his late friend and colleague.

“This is very special to me,” said Richards, 62, who visited schools in the Auburn district as part of his role with the Association of Space Explorers. The program sends NASA astronauts out to communities to share their experiences and preach the importance of math and science to tomorrow’s engineers and aviators.

ASE sent astronauts to all parts of the state during a week-long celebration of its XXI Planetary Congress in Seattle. The convention attracted as many as 40 former astronauts and cosmonauts. The reunion gives them an opportunity to share their experiences as well.

“I’ve done this many times … visited about 200 schools,” Richards said of his outreach role since retiring last year from Boeing as the deputy program manager for the Space Shuttle. “When I found out there was a school named after Dick … I wanted to make sure that was at the top of my list. I wanted to be here.

“But I didn’t expect the Scobee family to be here today, too. But with them here, it meant a lot more to me.”

Added Frank Scobee, the family patriarch who at 90 made the visit to see Richards: “Sure, it brings back memories (of my son), but it means a lot to me for him to be here.

“It’s hard to believe (it has been 22 years since the Challenger disaster),” he added. “You can hardly believe it, but they don’t let you forget.”

The visit was meaningful and, at times, awkward for Richards.

He faced many questions, but none perhaps more difficult than those about Dick Scobee, who grew up in

Auburn and became the commander of the ill-fated Challenger mission in 1986. The Space Shuttle exploded 73 seconds into its flight, killing the seven-member crew.

“I didn’t see those coming. I should have been more prepared for that,” Richards said. “The questions actually were making me choke up.”

Richards, a native Texan, was informally assigned to the Challenger mission, but was assigned elsewhere on another mission before the Space Shuttle’s launch.

Richards trained directly with Scobee.

“He was a very cool customer,” Richards recalled.

But Richards refuses to dwell on the tragedy, and made that clear to his young audience.

“If Dick were here, he would say, ‘Dick Richards doesn’t want to talk about the past, but the future and where we need to go,’ ” Richards told the crowd.

The future includes the phase-out of the Shuttle era, the completion of the International Space Station and exploring signs of life on other planets, namely Mars.

“The people who will go to Mars are about your age,” Richards told the students.

To get there, the space program will need engineers and aviators, dreamers and achievers.

“And that mathematics and science are cool,” Richards said. “They provide a background because there’s destinations in space to go to because of (math and science).”

The future needs thinkers and believers who can explore other worlds while learning to appreciate and preserve the Earth we have.

“When you are out there in space, you find things you didn’t expect,” Richards said. “You find things totally unexpected.”

Mark Klaas can be reached at 253-833-0218, ext. 5050, or mklaas@reporternewspapers.com