Christa McAuliffe

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Sharon Christa McAuliffe (née Corrigan, 1948) was a retired American teacher and explorer from Concord, New Hampshire, and one of the seven astronauts killed in the Space Shuttle Challenger tragedy. She earned her bachelor's degree in education and history at Framingham State College in 1970 and later a master's degree in education, leadership, and administration from Bowie State University in 1978.

In 1983, she began teaching at Concord High School in New Hampshire as a social studies tutor. She was chosen from more than 11,000 applicants to participate in the NASA Teacher in Space Project in 1985 and was supposed to be the first woman to fly in space.

She was planning to perform experiments and teach two lessons from Space Shuttle Challenger as a member of mission STS-51-L.

The shuttle broke apart 73 seconds after launch on January 28, 1986.

Following her death, colleges and scholarships were named in her honour, and in 2004, she was presented with the Congressional Space Medal of Honor.

Early life

Sharon Christa Corrigan was born in Boston on September 2, 1948, as the oldest of accountant Edward Christopher Corrigan (1922–1990), of Irish descent; and Grace Mary Corrigan (1924–2018), a substitute teacher whose father was of Lebanese Maronite descent; McAuliffe was a great niece of Lebanese-American historian Philip Khuri Hitti. She had been identified by her middle name from an early age, but in later years she adopted the spelling "S. Christa Corrigan" and eventually "S. Christa McAuliffe."

In the year she was born, her father was finishing his sophomore year at Boston College. He began working as an assistant comptroller in a Boston department store, and the couple moved to Framingham, Massachusetts, where she attended and graduated from Marian High School in 1966. She earned a bachelor's degree from Framingham State College, now Framingham State University, in 1970. Project Mercury and the Apollo Moon landing program influenced her as a child. "Do you know that someday people will go to the Moon?" John Glenn said in Friendship 7 on the day after being orbited the Earth by the Earth in Friendship 7. I'm even taking a bus, and I want to do it!" "I watched the Space Age being born, and I'd like to participate," she wrote years later on her NASA application form.

She married Steven J. McAuliffe, a 1970 graduate of the Virginia Military Institute, in 1970, so that he could attend the Georgetown University Law Center. When she died, she had two children, Scott and Caroline, who were nine and six years old respectively.

She began teaching at Benjamin Foulois Junior High School in Morningside, Maryland, in 1970. She taught history and civics at Thomas Johnson Middle School in Lanham, Maryland, from 1971 to 1978. She earned a Master of Arts degree in education leadership and administration from Bowie State University in Maryland, in addition to teaching. When Steven accepted a job as an assistant to the New Hampshire Attorney General in 1978, she moved to Concord, New Hampshire. Before taking up teaching positions at Concord High School in 1983, McAuliffe taught seventh and eighth grade American history and English in Concord, New Hampshire, and 9th grade English in Bow, New Hampshire.

In comparison to a self-designed course called "The American Woman," she was a social studies teacher and taught many courses, including American history, law, and economics. Her teaching methods included field trips and bringing in speakers. "She emphasized the contributions of ordinary people on history," she said, "noticeable to the historical record as kings, senator, or generals," according to The New York Times.

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