Christa McAuliffe
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| Astronaut | |
|---|---|
| Nationality | American |
| Born | September 2, 1948 Boston, Massachusetts |
| Died | January 28, 1986 Cape Canaveral, Florida |
| Occupation1 | Teacher |
| Selection | Teacher in Space Project |
| Mission(s) | STS-51-L |
| Mission insignia |  |
| 1 previous or current | |
Sharon Christa Corrigan McAuliffe (September 2, 1948 – January 28, 1986), better known simply as Christa McAuliffe, and prior to her marriage, Christa Corrigan, was an American teacher from Concord, New Hampshire who was selected from among more than 11,000 applicants to be the first teacher in space. She died in the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.
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[edit] Early life
Born Sharon Christa Corrigan on September 2, 1948 in Boston, Massachusetts, McAuliffe was the oldest of five children of Edward (deceased) and Grace Corrigan. The year she was born, her father was completing his sophomore year at Boston College. Not long thereafter, he took a job as an assistant comptroller in a Boston department store and the family moved to the Boston suburb of Framingham, where she attended and graduated from Marian High School in 1966. As a youth, she was inspired by the Apollo moon landing program, and wrote years later on her astronaut application form that "I watched the Space Age being born, and I would like to participate!"
[edit] Career as an educator
McAuliffe attended Framingham State College in her hometown, graduating in 1970. A few weeks later, she married her longstanding boyfriend, Steven McAuliffe, and they moved to the Washington, DC metropolitan area so Steven could attend the Georgetown University Law Center. They had two children: Scott and Caroline, who were nine and six respectively when she died.
McAuliffe took a job teaching in the secondary schools, specializing in American history, social studies, law, economics, and a self-designed course: "The American Woman". They stayed in the Washington area for the next eight years; she was teaching and completing a Master of Arts from Bowie State University in Maryland. They moved to Concord, New Hampshire in 1978, when Steven accepted a job as an assistant to the state attorney general. Christa took a teaching post at Concord High School in 1982. She was a Social Studies teacher and taught several courses including "American Culture", "Economics", "American Foreign Policy", and "Women's Studies". A large part of her teaching techniques were field trips or bringing in speakers. In 1984, she learned about NASA's efforts to locate an educator to fly on the space shuttle. They wanted a teacher, or an ordinary person who would spark the interests of the Americans further into the studies of space. The intent was to find a gifted teacher who could communicate with students while in orbit.
[edit] Member of the Teacher in Space Program
NASA selected McAuliffe for this position on July 19, 1985 (another teacher, Barbara Morgan, served as her backup). In the autumn of that year, both she and Morgan took a year-long leave of absence from teaching (NASA paid their salaries) to train for an early 1986 space shuttle mission. As part of the STS-51-L crew, she would be considered a Payload Specialist and would teach lessons from space. After being chosen to be the first teacher in space, McAuliffe was interviewed by many TV personalities, including the likes of Larry King, Johnny Carson, David Letterman, and Regis Philbin. She had an immediate rapport with the media, and the Teacher in Space project received tremendously popular attention as a result. It is in part because of the excitement over McAuliffe's presence on Challenger that the accident had such a significant effect on the nation.
Barbara Morgan became a professional astronaut in January 1998, about 12 years after McAuliffe's death. She is currently assigned to space shuttle mission STS-118. NASA plans to launch STS-118 to the International Space Station in 2007, approximately 21 1/2 years after Challenger.
[edit] Legacy
Twenty years after the Challenger accident, Christa's son Scott is a multimedia specialist. He married in 2004. Meanwhile, her daughter, Caroline, grew up to pursue the same career that her mother had pursued: teaching. As for Steve, he remarried, and became a federal judge in 1992. He serves with the United States District Court for the District of New Hampshire in Concord.
Just three days before the fourth anniversary of McAuliffe's death, her father, Edward Corrigan, also died. "I have been angry since January 28th, 1986," he once said, "when Christa was killed aboard the space shuttle Challenger. She didn't die 'for' NASA; she died because of NASA. I have no allegiance to NASA."
His wife, Grace, is still talking to schoolchildren about McAuliffe.
It was revealed in a recent documentary (see below) that after Christa's death, her parents did not celebrate holidays (Easter, Halloween, Independence Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's Day, etc.) for five years, because to them, "it just didn't feel right when someone we loved isn't there".
After her death, she was honored at many events, including sports events such as the Daytona 500.
The Christa McAuliffe Planetarium in Concord, New Hampshire and the Christa McAuliffe Space Education Center in Pleasant Grove, Utah are named in her memory, as are asteroid 3352 McAuliffe and the McAuliffe crater on the Moon.
A residence hall located on the campus of her Alma Mater, Bowie State University, is named after McAuliffe: The Christa McAuliffe Residential Complex. Christa McAuliffe Street in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina is also named in her honor. Located nearby in Myrtle Beach are Dick Scobee Road and Ronald McNair Boulevard. A portion of U.S. Route 460 passing through Roanoke County, Virginia was renamed Challenger Avenue in honor of the seven fallen crew members.
[edit] Schools
In the years after the tragedy, numerous schools were named after her, in cities including:
[edit] Movie
McAuliffe was portrayed by Karen Allen in the 1990 TV movie Challenger.
[edit] Cartoons
There were many cartoons that honored McAuliffe. One such tribute is when cartoon characters, such as the Animaniacs, put up a statue of McAuliffe on display.
[edit] Documentary film
A recent documentary film, made by two friends, was just recently shown on CNN, called Christa McAuliffe: Reach for the Stars [16][17][18]. It was shown to commemorate the 20th anniversary of her death.
[edit] Play
The play "Defying Gravity" by Emmy Award-winning writer Jane Anderson tells the story of the 5-year-old daughter of teacher-turned-astronaut Christa McAuliffe, and the anguish she was forced to bear while the nation watched as her mother's space shuttle exploded.The play combines a montage of characters, including McAuliffe, known only as Teacher, and her daughter Elizabeth, who narrates by transforming back and forth from a confused and hurt little girl to a 25-year-old woman trying to find understanding in the skewed memories of her childhood. Other characters affected by the tragedy include a retired couple touring the country in their Winnebago, a NASA mechanic, and artist Claude Monet, who helps tie together all of these characters as they try to find meaning after the unexpected disaster.
[edit] Other media
- The McAuliffe star system in the Wing Commander computer game series is named for her.
- The spaceship on the Children's science-fiction series Space Cases, about a group of students lost in space was called the "Christa".
[edit] Quotes
- I cannot join the space program and restart my life as an astronaut, but this opportunity to connect my abilities as an educator with my interests in history and space is a unique opportunity to fulfill my early fantasies.
- I touch the future. I teach.
- No teacher has ever been better prepared to teach a lesson.
- Reach for it. Push yourself as far as you can.
[edit] Further reading
- Burgess, Colin and Grace George Corrigan. Teacher in Space: Christa McAuliffe and the Challenger Legacy. 2000. ISBN 0-8032-6182-9
- Corrigan, Grace George. A Journal for Christa: Christa McAuliffe, Teacher in Space. 2000. ISBN 0-8032-6411-9
- Hohler, Robert T. I Touch the Future: The Story of Christa McAuliffe. 1986. ISBN 0-394-55721-2
[edit] External links
- Official NASA Bio
- Christa Corrigan McAuliffe Center for Education and Teaching Excellence
- Christa McAuliffe (1948-1986)
- Whittemore Library Special Collections: McAuliffe Collection
- Challenger Center bio
- Christa McAuliffe - A Biography at the Christa McAuliffe Planetarium
- S. Christa McAuliffe at the Astronauts Memorial Foundation
- Christa McAuliffe Technology Conference
- Christa McAuliffe Reach for the Stars Award
- Challenger Center: The 51-L Crew: Christa McAuliffe
- Christa McAuliffe at the Yahoo! Directory
- 'Reach for the stars' was McAuliffe's theme for her historic space mission
- NYT Obituary
- Concord, N.H., Remembers McAuliffe's Life
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Categories: Articles lacking sources from January 2007 | All articles lacking sources | American astronauts | American schoolteachers | Space program fatalities | Bowie State University alumni | Arab Americans | People from New Hampshire | Framingham, Massachusetts | Concord, New Hampshire | 1948 births | 1986 deaths
