Teacher’s death on space shuttle shocked nation
She was supposed to be the first teacher to go into space, but instead she because part of one of NASA's worst tragedies.
The breakup of the Challenger space shuttle in January 1986 shook public confidence in the U.S. space program and claimed the lives of seven astronauts, including Christa McAuliffe, the first teacher chosen to go to space.
In August 1984, President Ronald Reagan announced a program to select the first private citizen to go to space, a teacher.
“But when that shuttle lifts off, all of America will be reminded of the crucial role that teachers and education play in the life of our nation,” Reagan said during a ceremony honoring outstanding secondary schools. “I can't think of a better lesson for our children and our country.”
MacAuliffe, who was a teacher at Concord High School in Concord, N.H., applied for the program, noting that since she'd been born in 1948, she'd been inspired as a young person by the U.S. space program.
“I cannot join the space program and restart my life as an astronaut, but this opportunity to connect my abilities as an educator with my interests in history and space is a unique opportunity to fulfill my early fantasies,” she wrote in the application. “I watched the space program being born, and I would like to participate.”
McAuliffe was born in Boston on Sept. 2, 1948, and raised in Framinham, Mass. She graduated what's now Framingham State University in 1970 and became a teacher. She earned a master's degree in education supervision and administration from Bowie State University and, in 1983, she started teaching at Concord High School.
Out of the 11,000 applicants, McAuliffe made it to the 114 semifinalists and then the 10 finalists before, in late 1985, she was chosen to be the first teacher in space.
She and Barbara Morgan, who was selected as McAuliffe's backup, spent the next several months training for an early 1986 launch.
NASA planned to have McAuliffe broadcast two 15-minute lessons from onboard Challenger.
As Challenger Center, a nonprofit dedicated to STEM education, explained in an article about the Teacher in Space Program.
“As a member of the crew, Christa's role was to teach several lessons from the Space shuttle to America's classrooms. She planned to conduct two 15-minute lessons from orbit for broadcast by the Public Broadcasting System, as well as film various demonstrations on topics such as magnetism, Newton's Law, and hydroponics in microgravity.
“Her first lesson, titled ‘The Ultimate Field Trip,’ was to compare daily life on the Space shuttle with that on Earth. Conducting a tour of the Shuttle, Christa was to explain the crew members' roles, describe experiments being conducted on board, and demonstrate how the preparation of food, movement, exercise, personal hygiene, and sleep was different in low Earth orbit.
“In ‘Where We've Been, Where We're Going,’ her second lesson, she was to demonstrate the advantages of manufacturing in microgravity; highlight technological advances that came from the space program; and project what the future would hold for humans in space.
“When asked about the potential response to her lessons, she replied, ‘I think it's going to be very exciting for kids to be able to turn on the TV and see the teacher teaching from space. I'm hoping that this is going to elevate the teaching profession in the eyes of the public, and of those potential teachers out there, and hopefully, one of the maybe secondary objectives of this is students are going to be looking at me and perhaps thinking of going into teaching as professions.’”
McAuliffe didn't end up being the first teacher to go to space.
To the horror of the entire nation, the Challenger exploded a little more than a minute after liftoff.
As NASA explained on its website: “The explosion occurred 73 seconds into the flight as a result of a leak in one of two Solid Rocket Boosters that ignited the main liquid fuel tank. The crew members of the Challenger represented a cross-section of the American population in terms of race, gender, geography, background, and religion. The explosion became one of the most significant events of the 1980s, as billions around the world saw the accident on television and empathized with any one of the several crew members killed.”
In part because of the Teacher in Space program, the reach of the tragedy was magnified. Students are elementary and secondary schools across the nation had been watching the launch and saw the disaster unfold in real time.
Hours after the explosion, Reagan, who'd been scheduled to give the State of the Union address that evening, instead spoke to the nation from the Oval Office. In his short speech, Reagan offered words of both comfort and encouragement, honoring the dedication of the seven astronauts who'd lost their lives that morning.
“The crew of the space shuttle Challenger honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives,” he said. “We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and ‘slipped the surly bonds of earth’ to ‘touch the face of God.'’
In the years after the disaster, everything from schools to asteroids to craters on both the Moon and Venus have been named for McAuliffe.
Her family, along with the families of the other crew members, founded Challenger Center, a nonprofit dedicated to STEM education, just months after the disaster. In the 38 years since the disaster, it has worked with more than 6 million children.
Barbara Morgan, who was McAuliffe's backup for the Challenger mission, wasn't done with space. In 1998, 12 years after the Challenger explosion, Morgan was selected for the astronaut training program. In 2007 she would fly a mission on the shuttle Endeavour.
Morgan had actually been supposed to fly on the shuttle Columbia in 2004, but her life intersected with a second NASA tragedy, as the Columbia broke up during reentry in February 2003.
In 2004 McAuliffe, along with the other six members of the Challenger crew and the seven crew members killed on Columbia, were all give the Congressional Space Medal of Honor.
Even after 38 years, recognition is still coming for McAuliffe. On Sept. 2, which would have been her 76th birthday, a statute of her was unveiled in Concord, N.H.
The Associated Press wrote of the statute: “The 8-foot-tall bronze, depicting McAuliffe walking in stride in a NASA flight suit, is believed to be the first full statue of McAuliffe, known for her openness to experimental learning. Her motto was: ‘I touch the future, I teach.'’
