It was otherwise a routine mission but it had the added dimension of having a non-professional astronaut school teacher on board. She was supposed to do live lessons from space or something. There were school activities planned. It was a huge nationwide thing.

Shuttle missions were routine by then but this one had much MUCH more attention paid to it and it was played live in schools across the country.

I was in 5th grade and I remember getting my first early lessons in physics in the days before the launch.