Christa McAuliffe - Space Shuttle Challenger Teacher

Christa McAuliffe - Space Shuttle Challenger Teacher Sharon Christa Corrigan  McAuliffe was Americas first teacher in space candidate, chosen to fly aboard the shuttle and teach lessons to children on Earth. Unfortunately, her flight ended in tragedy when the Challenger orbiter was destroyed 73 seconds after liftoff. She left behind a legacy of education facilities called the Challenger Centers, with one located in her home state of New Hampshire. McAuliffe was born September 2, 1948 to Edward and Grace Corrigan, and grew up being very  excited about the space program. Years later, on her Teacher In Space Program application, she wrote, I watched the Space Age being born and I would like to participate. Christa McAulffe in the Shuttle Mission Simulator training for her flight aboard Challenger. NASA Johnson Space Center (NASA-JSC) Early Life Sharon Christa Corrigan was born on September 2, 1948 in Boston, Massachusetts, to Edward C. Corrigan and Grace Mary Corrigan. She was the oldest of five children and went by the name Christa her whole life. The Corrigans lived in Massachusetts, moving from Boston to Framingham when Christa was a small child. She attended Marian High school, graduating in 1966. While attending Marian High School in Framingham, MA, Christa met and fell in love with Steve McAuliffe. After graduation, she attended Framingham State College, majored in history, and received her degree in 1970. That same year, she and Steve were married. They moved to the Washington, D.C. area, where Steve attended Georgetown Law School. Christa took a teaching job, specializing in American history and social studies until the birth of their son, Scott. She  attended Bowie State University, earning a masters degree in school administration in 1978. They next moved to Concord, NH, when Steve accepted a job as an assistant to the state attorney general. Christa had a daughter, Caroline and stayed home to raise her and Scott while looking for work. Eventually, she took a job with Bow Memorial School, then later with Concord High School.   Becoming the Teacher in Space In 1984, when she learned about NASAs efforts to locate an educator to fly on the space shuttle, everyone who knew Christa told her to go for it. She mailed her completed application at the last minute and doubted her chances of success. Even after becoming a finalist, she did not expect to be chosen. Some of the other teachers were doctors, authors, scholars. She felt she was just an ordinary person. When her name was chosen, out of 11,500 applicants in the summer of 1984, she was shocked but ecstatic. She was going to make history as the first school teacher in space. Christa headed to the Johnson Space Center in Houston to begin her training in September 1985. She feared the other astronauts would consider her an intruder, just â€Å"along for the ride,† and vowed to work hard to prove herself. Instead, she discovered that the other crew members treated her as part of the team. She trained with them in preparation for a 1986 mission. Christa McAuliffe undergoing weightless training in NASAs Vomit Comet trainer. NASA   She said, â€Å"A lot of people thought it was over when we reached the Moon (on Apollo 11). They put space on the back burner. But people have a connection with teachers. Now that a teacher has been selected, they are starting to watch the launches again.† Lesson Plans for a Special Mission Besides teaching a set of special science lessons from the shuttle, Christa was planning to keep a journal of her adventure. â€Å"Thats our new frontier out there, and its everybodys business to know about space, she noted.   Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster STS-51L Pictures - 51-L Challenger Crew in White Room. NASA Headquarters - GReatest Images of NASA (NASA-HQ-GRIN) Christa was scheduled to fly aboard the space shuttle  Challenger for mission STS-51L. After several delays, it finally launched January 28, 1986 at 11:38:00 a.m. eastern standard time. Seventy-three seconds into the flight, the Challenger exploded, killing all seven astronauts aboard as their families watched from the Kennedy Space Center. It was not the first NASA space flight tragedy, but it was the first watched around the world. Sharon Christa McAuliffe was killed along with the entire crew; mission commander Francis R. Scobee; pilot Michael J. Smith; mission specialists Ronald E. McNair, Ellison S. Onizuka, and Judith A. Resnik; and payload specialists Gregory B. Jarvis. Christa McAuliffe was also listed as a payload specialist. The cause of the Challenger explosion was later determined to be the failure of an o-ring due to extreme cold temperatures. However, the real problems may have had more to do with politics than engineering. Honors and Remembrance While it has been many years since the incident, people have not forgotten McAuliffe and her teammates. Part of Christa McAuliffe’s mission aboard the Challenger was to have taught two lessons from space. One would have introduced the crew, explained their functions, describing much of the equipment aboard, and telling how life is lived aboard a space shuttle. The second lesson would have concentrated more on spaceflight itself, how it works, why it’s done, etc. She never got to teach those lessons. Astronauts Joe Acaba and Ricky Arnold, who are part of the astronaut corps for the International Space Station, announced plans to use the lessons onboard the station during their mission. The plans covered experiments in liquids, effervescence, chromatography and Newtons laws. Challenger Centers After the tragedy, the families of the Challenger crew banded together to help form the Challenger Organization, which provides resources for students, teachers, and parents for educational purposes. Included in these resources are 42 Learning Centers in 26 states, Canada, and the UK which offer a two-room simulator, consisting of a space station, complete with communications, medical, life, and computer science equipment, and a mission control room patterned after NASAs Johnson Space Center and a space lab ready for exploration. Also, there have been many schools and other facilities around the country named after these heroes, including the Christa McAuliffe Planetarium in Concord, NH. Scholarships have been funded in her memory, and she is remembered each year on NASAs Day of Remembrance commemorating all astronauts lost in the line of duty. The Christa McAuliffe planetarium/Shepard Discovery Center in Concord, New Hampshire. Christa McAuliffe is buried in a Concord cemetery, on a hillside not far from the planetarium built in her honor. Fast Facts: Christa McAuliffe Born: September 2, 1948; died January 28, 1986.Parents: Edward C. and Grace Mary CorriganMarried: Steven J. McAuliffe in 1970.Children: Scott and CarolineChrista McAuliffe was to be the first teacher in space. She was selected in 1984 for a 1986 mission.McAuliffe had planned to teach several lessons from space to children around the world.The Challenger mission was cut short by castastrophe 73 seconds after launch when the main tank exploded due to outgassing from the solid rocket boosters. It destroyed the shuttle and killed all seven astronauts. Sources: â€Å"Christa McAuliffe Biography / Biography of Christa McAuliffe.†Ã‚  Los Alamitos Unified School District / Overview, www.losal.org/domain/521.â€Å"Christas Lost Lessons.†Ã‚  Challenger Center, www.challenger.org/challenger_lessons/christas-lost-lessons/.Garcia, Mark. â€Å"Christa McAuliffes Legacy Experiments.†Ã‚  NASA, NASA, 23 Jan. 2018, www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-challenger-center-collaborate-to-perform-christa-mcauliffe-s-legacy-experiments. Edited and updated by Carolyn Collins Petersen.