S. Christa McAuliffe
Payload Specialist Astronaut and Teacher in Space

Christa McAuliffe was selected as the primary candidate for the NASA Teacher in Space project on July 19, 1985. Vice President George Bush announced that Christa was the unanimous choice of NASA, selected from over 11,000 applicants, to be the first Teacher in Space.

Christa's responsibility on the Challenger mission was to teach lessons from space via satellite to school children across the United States. Project "Classroom Earth" consisted of two lessons: "The Ultimate Field Trip" and "Where We've Been, Where We're Going, and Why?" As the first Teacher in Space, her goal was to "humanize the Space Age by giving a perspective from a non-astronaut."

Christa earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from Framingham State College, Massachusetts, in 1970. Shortly after graduating, she married her high school sweetheart, Steven McAuliffe, and moved to the Washington, DC area. While he attended Georgetown Law School, she got her first experience in a classroom as a substitute teacher at Benjamin Foulois Junior high School in Morningside, Maryland. She soon acquired a permanent position teaching American History, Civics, and English at Thomas Johnson High School. Eight years later, just prior to moving to Concord, New Hampshire, Christa received her Master's in education supervision and administration from Bowie State College in Maryland.

In Concord, Christa taught American History and English to 7th and 8th graders; and American History, Economics, Law, and Social Studies to high school students. She developed the curriculum for a course called "The American Woman." The course explored the history of the United States from the female perspective, and relied heavily upon the journals and letters of the women who lived it.

During the training for her mission, she once told an interviewer, "You have to dream. We all have to dream. Dreaming is okay. Imagine me teaching from space, all over the world, touching so many people's lives. That's a teacher's dream! I have a vision of the world as a global village, a world without boundaries. Imagine a history teacher making history!"

Christa McAuliffe was born on September 2, 1948, in Boston, Massachusetts. She is survived by her husband, Steven J. McAuliffe, and their two children, Scott and Caroline.

Additional Information

Read Christa McAuliffe's official NASA biography.

The Christa Corrigan McAuliffe Collection
Housed at the Henry Whittemore Library at Framingham State College (Massachusetts). The voluminous collection was donated by Grace Corrigan, Christa McAuliffe's mother. Artifacts include personal papers, newspaper clippings and magazine articles, audiovisual materials, and tributes and memorials for the Challenger crew.