Christa McAuliffe

Christa McAuliffe (1948-1986), United States astronaut and teacher. McAuliffe was one of seven crew members who perished in the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger in 1986 (see Challenger Disaster).

Sharon Christa Corrigan McAuliffe was born in Boston, Massachusetts and grew up in the suburb of Framingham, Massachusetts. She earned a B.A. degree in American history and secondary education from Framingham State College in 1970. She taught junior high school history, English, and civics in Maryland and New Hampshire before earning an M.A. degree in education from Bowie State College in Maryland in 1978.

McAuliffe was teaching social studies in New Hampshire when she applied to the Teacher in Space Program run by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). In her classes she emphasized the role of ordinary citizens in history, and in her application she wrote, “I would like to humanize the Space Age by giving the perspective of a non-astronaut. I think the students will look at that and see that an ordinary person is contributing to history. If they can make that connection, they are going to be excited about history and the future.” She was selected from more than 11,000 applicants to fly aboard the space shuttle Challenger .

McAuliffe was to have taught two lessons from space and then tour the country teaching about the space program. She had also planned to keep a diary of her flight to share with students while on her teaching tour.

Tragically, the Challenger was destroyed and all of its crew were killed when a massive explosion completely engulfed it 73 seconds after its launch on the morning of January 28, 1986. The space shuttle program was shut down for two years while NASA scientists and engineers studied and corrected the cause of the explosion.