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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.

Early life

Born Sharon Christa Corrigan on September 2, 1948 in Boston, Massachusetts, McAuliffe was the oldest out 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!"

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 9 and 6 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 Studies". A large part of her teaching techniques was field trips or bringing in speakers. In 1984 she learned about NASA's efforts to locate an educator to fly on the space shuttle. The intent was to find a gifted teacher who could communicate with students while in orbit.

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 as 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 impact on the nation.

Barbara Morgan became an astronaut in January 1998, about 12 years after McAuliffe's death. She is currently assigned to space shuttle mission STS-118. NASA would hopefully launch STS-118 to the International Space Station in 2007, approximately 21 1/2 years after Challenger, and would have astronaut Morgan teach the same lesson that would have been taught by McAuliffe.

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, and McAuliffe's siblings are 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, Thankgiving, 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.

Surviving family

After her death, McAuliffe was survived by:
  • Her father, Edward Corrigan (now also deceased)
  • Her mother, Grace Corrigan
  • Her brother, Christopher "Kit" Corrigan
  • Her brother, Stephen Corrigan
  • Her sister, Lisa Bristol
  • Her sister, Betsy Corrigan
  • Her husband, Steven McAuliffe (now remarried)
  • Her son, Scott McAuliffe (now married)
  • Her daughter, Caroline McAuliffe

Schools

In the years after the tragedy, numerous schools were named after her, in cities including:

             

Movie

McAuliffe was portrayed by Karen Allen in the 1990 TV movie Challenger.

There is a possibility that a remake may come out, most likely by Walt Disney Pictures (in association with NASA), who produced other movies based on true stories like Eight Below and Remember the Titans.

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.

Documentary film

A recent documentary film, made by two friends, was just recently shown on CNN, called Reach for the Stars ***. It was shown to commemorate the 20th anniversary of her death.

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.

See also

Further reading

  • Burgess, Colin and Grace George Corrigan. Teacher in Space: Christa McAuliffe and the Challenger Legacy. 2000. ISBN 0803261829
  • Corrigan, Grace George. A Journal for Christa: Christa McAuliffe, Teacher in Space. 2000. ISBN 0803264119
  • Hohler, Robert T. I Touch the Future: The Story of Christa McAuliffe. 1986 ISBN 0394557212

External links

American astronauts | American schoolteachers | Space program fatalities | Women in space | Bowie State University alumni | Arab Americans | People from New Hampshire | Framingham, Massachusetts | Concord, New Hampshire | 1948 births | 1986 deaths

Sharon Christa McAuliffe | Christa McAuliffe | Christa McAuliffe | Christa McAuliffe | כריסטה מקאוליף | Christa McAuliffe | Christa McAuliffe | Christa McAuliffe

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Christa McAuliffe".

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