Christa McAuliffe

UXL Encyclopedia of World Biography, (2003)

In a unanimous decision the seven-member NASA Space Flight Participant Evaluation Committee awarded the assignment of "first teacher in space" to Christa McAuliffe. She received a keepsake award at a formal announcement ceremony on July 19, 1985 at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

McAuliffe returned to Concord on August 6, 1985, and the city observed "Christa McAuliffe Day" in her honor. She received commendations from her town and from the state of New Hampshire. The National Education Association (NEA) honored McAuliffe as well.

Astronaut Training

In late summer of 1985, McAuliffe left New Hampshire for the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. On September 9 she embarked on an intensive training program to prepare for NASA Mission 51-L, her journey into space. During that mission shuttle astronauts would deploy the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite-2 (TDRS-2), a communications satellite. They would also deploy and retrieve a machine called the Spartan-Halley carrier to study ultraviolet light from the tail of Halley's Comet.

Throughout her 120 days of astronaut training, McAuliffe shared the experience with the American public through mainstream media outlets. She received briefings and learned to read flight data and to operate certain cockpit controls. She practiced proper procedures for entering and exiting the space shuttle and learned to operate the ship's on-board cameras. She trained on a KC-135 training jet that simulated weightlessness for the astronauts. Other simulators depicted the appearance of space and the feeling of extra gravity pull on liftoff. McAuliffe's emergency training included fire fighting, and the use of a "rescue ball," to be used like a space suit in the event of an in-orbit rescue from the shuttle. McAuliffe learned to operate galley equipment, and even how to accomplish bathroom operations in outer space. Her flight apparel included shirts, shorts, underwear, socks, slipper socks, flight boots, gloves, pants, a jacket, coveralls, and a personal hygiene kit. Her supply kit contained a watch, flashlight, pressurized pens, pencils, sunglasses, scissors, a pocketknife, earplugs, and a mask for sleeping. She learned to operate a sleep restraint harness to prevent drifting about the cabin when resting. McAuliffe selected her own meals from an assortment of space food. For entertainment she brought six tape cassettes and a tape player. McAuliffe learned how to capture clear, sharp, detailed photographs from space with a personal camera. Like tourists everywhere, she planned to return with souvenir pictures of her trip.

As the first teacher in space, McAuliffe prepared two in-flight lessons about outer space: "The Ultimate Field Trip" and "Where We've Been, Where We're Going, Why," to be broadcast live from the orbiting space shuttle to U.S. school-children. Included among the shuttle cargo were three experiments prepared and donated by U.S. schoolchildren. There was an experiment to observe the effects of outer space on developing chicken embryos, another to study crystal growth, and a third to study grain formation and metal strength in a weightless environment. McAuliffe would also monitor an experiment in hydroponics (growing plants using only liquid nutrients, without soil).