Sharon Christa McAuliffe was an American teacher and astronaut from Concord, New Hampshire who was killed on the Space Shuttle Challenger on mission STS-51-L, where she was serving as a payload specialist.
26 Facts About Christa McAuliffe
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Christa McAuliffe took a teaching position as a social studies teacher at Concord High School in New Hampshire in 1983.
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In 1985, Christa McAuliffe was selected from more than 11,000 applicants to the NASA Teacher in Space Project and was scheduled to become the first teacher to fly in space.
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Sharon Christa McAuliffe Corrigan was born on September 2,1948, in Boston as the oldest of the five children of accountant Edward Christopher Corrigan, who was of Irish descent; and Grace Mary Corrigan, a substitute teacher, whose father was of Lebanese Maronite descent.
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Christa McAuliffe was a great niece of Lebanese-American historian Philip Khuri Hitti.
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The year Christa McAuliffe was born, her father was completing his sophomore year at Boston College.
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Not long after, he took a job as an assistant comptroller in a Boston department store, and they moved to Framingham, Massachusetts, where Christa McAuliffe attended and graduated from Marian High School in 1966.
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Christa McAuliffe went on to earn a bachelor's degree in 1970 from Framingham State College, now Framingham State University.
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In 1970, McAuliffe married her longtime boyfriend whom she had known since high school, Steven J McAuliffe, a 1970 graduate of the Virginia Military Institute, and they moved closer to Washington, DC, so that he could attend the Georgetown University Law Center.
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Christa McAuliffe obtained her first teaching position in 1970, as an American history teacher at Benjamin Foulois Junior High School in Morningside, Maryland.
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Christa McAuliffe taught 7th and 8th grade American history and English in Concord, New Hampshire, and ninth grade English in Bow, New Hampshire, before taking a teaching post at Concord High School in 1983.
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Christa McAuliffe was a social studies teacher, and taught several courses including American history, law, and economics, in addition to a self-designed course: "The American Woman".
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In 1984, President Ronald Reagan announced the Teacher in Space Project, and Christa McAuliffe learned about NASA's efforts to find their first civilian, an educator, to fly into space.
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Christa McAuliffe was one of two teachers nominated by the state of New Hampshire.
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On July 1,1985, Christa McAuliffe was announced as one of the 10 finalists, and on July 7 she traveled to Johnson Space Center for a week of thorough medical examinations and briefings about space flight.
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Bush announced that Christa McAuliffe had been selected for the position.
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Christa McAuliffe's planned duties included basic science experiments in the fields of chromatography, hydroponics, magnetism, and Newton's laws.
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Christa McAuliffe was planning to conduct two 15-minute classes from space, including a tour of the spacecraft, called "The Ultimate Field Trip", and a lesson about the benefits of space travel, called "Where We've Been, Where We're Going, Why".
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On January 28,1986, Christa McAuliffe boarded Challenger with the other six crew members of STS-51-L.
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Christa McAuliffe was buried at Blossom Hill Cemetery in her hometown of Concord.
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Christa McAuliffe has since been honored at many events, including the Daytona 500 NASCAR race in 1986.
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Grants in Christa McAuliffe's name, honoring innovative teachers, are provided by the American Association of State Colleges and Universities and the National Council for the Social Studies.
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Christa McAuliffe was portrayed by Karen Allen in the 1990 TV movie Challenger.
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In 2019, Christa McAuliffe was portrayed by Erika Waldorf in the independent film The Challenger Disaster.
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In 2006, a documentary film about McAuliffe and Morgan called Christa McAuliffe: Reach for the Stars aired on CNN in the CNN Presents format.
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Christa McAuliffe's parents worked with Framingham State College to establish the Christa McAuliffe Center.