Christa McAuliffe Parents: Who Are Christa McAuliffe Parents?

Publish date: 2024-05-02

Christa McAuliffe Parents: Who Are Christa McAuliffe Parents?: Christa McAuliffe, officially known as Sharon Christa McAuliffe was an American teacher and astronaut.

She was born on September 2, 1948, in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. McAuliffe graduated from Framingham State College in 1970 with a bachelor’s degree in education and history.

She had her master’s degree in education, supervision, and administration from Bowie State University in 1978 before teaching social studies at Concord High School in New Hampshire in 1983.

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Growing up, McAuliffe was inspired by Project Mercury and the Apollo Moon landing program.

The day after John Glenn orbited the Earth in Friendship 7, she told a friend at Marian High, “Do you realize that someday people will be going to the Moon? Maybe even taking a bus, and I want to do that!”.

In 1984, President Ronald Reagan announced the Teacher in Space Project, an effort to find their first civilian, an educator, to fly into space. NASA wanted to find an “ordinary person,” a gifted teacher who could communicate with students while in orbit.

McAuliffe became one of more than 11,000 applicants and on her NASA application form, she wrote; “I watched the Space Age be ing born, and I would like to participate.”

In 1985, McAuliffe was selected from more than 11,000 applicants to the NASA Teacher in Space Project and was scheduled to become the first teacher to fly in space.

After being chosen as the first teacher in space, she appeared as a guest on several television programs, including Good Morning America; the CBS Morning News; the Today Show; and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.

When asked how she felt about the mission, she stated, “If you’re offered a seat on a rocket ship, don’t ask what seat. Just get on.”

As a member of mission STS-51-L, she was planning to conduct experiments and teach two lessons from Challenger. She also served as a payload specialist.

On January 28, 1986, McAuliffe boarded Challenger with the other six crew members of STS-51-L. Unfortunately, 1 minute 13 seconds after launch, at an altitude of 48,000 ft (14.630 km), the shuttle broke apart killing all onboard.

After her death, several schools were named in her honor, and she was posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor in 2004.