Christa McAuliffe

UXL Newsmakers, (2005)

Christa McAuliffe

Teacher Christa McAuliffe (1948-1986) was the first private citizen to be included in a space mission. She died in a fiery explosion mere seconds after the launch of the space shuttle Challenger on January 28, 1986.

Christa McAuliffe was a teacher, an "ordinary" person by her own estimation, and it was a paradigm of ordinary people that she impressed on her students; she taught that history is a result of ordinary people living their lives in their own times. In her eagerness to be the first civilian in outer space she resolved to keep a record of her journey for posterity, the journal of an "everyday teacher" in space. The Challenger spacecraft on which McAuliffe was to ride was a well-maintained member of the U.S. shuttle fleet, having made several previous trips into orbit around the earth. In 120 days of training and preparation for her flight, McAuliffe learned to cope with every foreseeable disaster—save one: the event of an explosion aboard the shuttle within 74 seconds of liftoff, even before the shuttle's solid rocket boosters consumed their two million pounds of auxiliary fuel.

An Ordinary Life

McAuliffe was born Sharon Christa Corrigan on September 2, 1948 in Boston, Massachusetts. Her parents, Edward and Grace Corrigan, raised their five children in Framingham, Massachusetts. McAuliffe's father was an accountant and her mother a substitute teacher. McAuliffe was always known as Christa. She was the oldest of the Corrigan siblings, and was responsible and emotionally mature, even as a child. She joined the Brownies and later the Girl Scouts of America. She loved the outdoors, spent summers at Camp Wabasso in New Hampshire, and liked to ski and play softball. Music was important to McAuliffe. She studied piano and performed in student musicals at Marian High School in Framingham.

It was also at Marian High School that she met her future husband, Steven James McAuliffe. After graduation in 1966 she enrolled at Framingham State College while Steven McAuliffe attended the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Virginia. At Framingham State, McAuliffe majored in history. She sang in the glee club and was elected twice to be the captain of the debate team. She graduated from Framingham in 1970 with tentative plans for a career in social service. That same year on August 23 she married Steven McAuliffe and went to live in Maryland.

After the move, McAuliffe accepted a teaching position at Benjamin Foulois Junior High School in Morningside, Maryland where she taught American history to eighth grade students. Between 1971 until 1978 she taught eighth and ninth grade history, English, and civics at Thomas Johnson Junior High School in the town of Lanham. She was by then committed to her career as a teacher and enrolled in graduate courses at Bowie State College in Bowie, Maryland. She earned a master's degree in education in 1978. In her thesis McAuliffe discussed the acceptance of the handicapped child in a regular classroom by his peers. Her husband, during those years, attended law school and was employed as a defense lawyer for the Army Judge Advocate General's Corps before entering private practice in 1975.

The McAuliffe's son, Scott, was born on September 1, 1976. Two years later the young family moved to Concord, New Hampshire in order for Steven to work as an assistant district attorney for the State of New Hampshire. In Concord, on August 24, 1979, their daughter, Caroline, was born. The following year, in 1980, McAuliffe resumed teaching. She began at Rundlett Junior High School in Concord and later transferred to Bow Memorial School in Bow, New Hampshire where she taught ninth-grade English from 1981 until 1982.

McAuliffe's generous contributions to community activities included serving as resident of the Bow teacher's union, teaching Christian doctrine to children at her parish church, and campaigning for a local hospital and for the YWCA. She joined the Junior Service League, participated in "A Better Chance" a program for inner city students, and was a Girl Scout troop leader. When she taught at Concord High School, beginning in 1982, she authored and taught a course entitled, "The American Women."

Teacher in Space Program

McAuliffe was teaching at Concord High School in November 1984 when Vice-President George Bush announced the "Teacher in Space Project" to the people of the United States. By February 1, 1985, McAuliffe had filed an application explaining her interest in the space program. Charlene W. Billings quoted her recollection in Christa McAuliffe: Pioneer Space Teacher, "the excitement in my home when the first satellites were launched. I was caught up with their wonder. I cannot join the space program and restart my life as an astronaut, but I watched the Space Age being born and I would like to participate."

The initial selection process reduced the applicant pool to 114 teachers. McAuliffe survived the cut and went to Washington, D.C. to proceed with the selection process before the National Review Panel. The diverse panel included former astronauts, NASA officials, educators, politicians, executives, professional athletes, two actors, a physicist, and others. The panel selected ten finalists from among the 114 applicants. The candidates endured days of intensive medical, physical, and psychological examinations and persistent briefings followed by final interviews with a panel of seven senior NASA officials. As quoted by Billings, McAuliffe told members of the panel: "I've always been concerned that ordinary people have not been given their place in history. I would like to humanize the space age by giving the perspective of a non-astronaut. Space is the future. As teachers we prepare the students for the future. We have to include it, space is for everyone." McAuliffe promised to share her adventure by means of a meticulously kept diary that she would record in space.