73 Seconds

A new musical
Written & composed by Jordan Li-Smith

"Seventy-three seconds 'till you touch the future"

73 Seconds centres on teacher Barbara Morgan, who watched her friend and fellow educator, Christa McAuliffe, ascend aboard the Challenger shuttle on a cold January morning in Cape Canaveral. Christa was the first teacher in NASA’s Teacher-in-Space program, and Barbara was her backup. But just 73 seconds after liftoff, the shuttle disintegrated, killing all seven crew members.

As the nation grieved, physicist Richard Feynman joined the official investigation, uncovering systemic failures that led to the disaster, despite attempts to derail him. Barbara witnessed all of it.

The play unfolds across three timelines, woven through Barbara’s memories. It begins 12 years after the disaster, and Barbara is back teaching in Idaho, when she receives an unexpected letter from NASA: an invitation to fulfil her long-deferred dream of spaceflight and become a full-time astronaut. 

From there, memories of her training and the investigation resurface. Not as flashbacks – but as fragments. Moments. Alive in Barbara’s present… actively observing… eventually, stepping inside them. Her journey forward means opening herself to the past, confronting her fears, and discovering a future she thought she’d left behind.

73 SECONDS is a story of resilience, loss, and the courage to step forward after tragedy, based on true events. It draws parallels between the pursuit of truth and the search for identity within someone else’s shadow. The play examines the archetype of ‘The American Woman’, and how ordinary people—especially women—find themselves making history.