Christa McAuliffe: Difference between revisions

Sharon Christa Corrigan McAuliffe
Sharon Christa Corrigan McAuliffe
	File:ChristaMcAuliffe.jpeg
Nationality	American
Occupation	Teacher
	Space career
Astronaut
Selection	Teacher in Space Project
Missions	STS-51-L
Mission insignia

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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 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 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 Almer 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.

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 Christa McAuliffe: Reach for the Stars [15][16][17]. It was shown to commemorate the 20th anniversary of her death.

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.

Trivia questions on game shows

Many years after her death, questions about her are still being asked on trivia quiz game shows such as Who Wants to be a Millionaire, which was previously hosted by one of the many TV personalities that interviewed her: Regis Philbin (it is now hosted by Meredith Vieira).

Other media

The McAuliffe star system in the Wing Commander computer game series is named for her.

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.

External links

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v t e STS-51-L
Space Shuttle Challenger disaster
	Main articles	Space Shuttle Challenger Timeline of STS-51-L
	Crew	Dick Scobee Michael J. Smith Judith Resnik Ellison Onizuka Ronald McNair Gregory Jarvis Christa McAuliffe
	See also	Rogers Commission Report Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Booster TDRS-B Challenger flag Challenger (1990 film) The Challenger Disaster (2013 film) Challenger: The Final Flight (2020 documentary miniseries)