Christa McAuliffe (Astronaut) – Overview, Biography

Christa McAuliffe
Name:Christa McAuliffe
Occupation: Astronaut
Gender:Female
Birth Day: September 2,
1948
Death Date:Jan 28, 1986 (age 37)
Age: Aged 37
Birth Place: Boston,
United States
Zodiac Sign:Virgo

Christa McAuliffe

Christa McAuliffe was born on September 2, 1948 in Boston, United States (37 years old). Christa McAuliffe is an Astronaut, zodiac sign: Virgo. Nationality: United States. Approx. Net Worth: Undisclosed.

Trivia

She was posthumously granted the Congressional Space Medal of Honor in 2004.

Net Worth 2020

Undisclosed
Find out more about Christa McAuliffe net worth here.

Does Christa McAuliffe Dead or Alive?

As per our current Database, Christa McAuliffe died on Jan 28, 1986 (age 37).

Physique

HeightWeightHair ColourEye ColourBlood TypeTattoo(s)
N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A

Before Fame

She started her career as an American history teacher at a middle school in Maryland.

Biography

Biography Timeline

1948

Sharon Christa Corrigan was born on September 2, 1948 in Boston, the capital of Massachusetts. She was the oldest of the five children of accountant Edward Christopher Corrigan (1922–1990), who was of Irish descent; and Grace Mary Corrigan (1924–2018; née George), a substitute teacher, whose father was of Lebanese Maronite descent. McAuliffe was a great niece of Lebanese-American historian Philip Khuri Hitti. She was known by her middle name from an early age, although in later years she signed her name “S. Christa Corrigan”, and eventually “S. Christa McAuliffe”.

1966

The year she was born, her father was completing his sophomore year at Boston College. Not long after, he took a job as an assistant comptroller in a Boston department store, and they moved to Framingham, Massachusetts, where she attended and graduated from Marian High School in 1966. As a youth, she 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!” She wrote years later on her NASA application form: “I watched the Space Age being born, and I would like to participate.”

1970

In 1970, she married her longtime boyfriend whom she had known since high school, Steven J. McAuliffe, a 1970 graduate of the Virginia Military Institute, and they moved closer to Washington, D.C., so that he could attend the Georgetown University Law Center. They had two children, Scott and Caroline, who were nine and six, respectively, when she died.

She obtained her first teaching position in 1970, as an American history teacher at Benjamin Foulois Junior High School in Morningside, Maryland. From 1971 to 1978, she taught history and civics at Thomas Johnson Middle School in Lanham, Maryland. In addition to teaching, she completed a Master of Arts in education supervision and administration from Bowie State University in Maryland. In 1978, she moved to Concord, New Hampshire, when Steven accepted a job as an assistant to the New Hampshire Attorney General. McAuliffe taught 7th and 8th grade American history and English in Concord, New Hampshire, and 9th grade English in Bow, New Hampshire, before taking a teaching post at Concord High School in 1983.

1984

In 1984, President Ronald Reagan announced the Teacher in Space Project, and Christa learned about NASA’s efforts 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.

1985

On July 1, 1985, she was announced as one of the 10 finalists, and on July 7 she traveled to Johnson Space Center for a week of thorough medical examinations and briefings about space flight. The finalists were interviewed by an evaluation committee composed of senior NASA officials, and the committee made recommendations to NASA Administrator James M. Beggs for the primary and backup candidates for the Teacher in Space Project. On July 19, 1985, Vice President George H. W. Bush announced that she had been selected for the position. Another teacher, Barbara Morgan, served as her backup. According to Mark Travis of the Concord Monitor, it was her manner that set her apart from the other candidates. NASA official Alan Ladwig said “she had an infectious enthusiasm”, and NASA psychiatrist Terrence McGuire told New Woman magazine that “she was the most broad-based, best-balanced person of the 10.”

1986

Later that year, she and Morgan each took a year-long leave of absence from teaching in order to train for a space shuttle mission in early 1986. (NASA paid both their salaries). While not a member of the NASA Astronaut Corps, McAuliffe was to be part of the STS-51-L crew, and would conduct experiments and teach lessons from space. Her planned duties included basic science experiments in the fields of chromatography, hydroponics, magnetism, and Newton’s laws. She was also planning to conduct two 15-minute classes from space, including a tour of the spacecraft, called “The Ultimate Field Trip”, and a lesson about the benefits of space travel, called “Where We’ve Been, Where We’re Going, Why.” The lessons were to be broadcast to millions of schoolchildren via closed-circuit TV. To record her thoughts, McAuliffe intended to keep a personal journal like a “woman on the Conestoga wagons pioneering the West.”

On January 28, 1986, McAuliffe boarded Challenger with the other six crew members of STS-51-L. Seventy-three seconds into its flight at an altitude of 48,000 ft (14.630 km), the shuttle broke apart, resulting in the deaths of all seven crew members.

McAuliffe was buried at Blossom Hill Cemetery in her hometown, Concord. She has since been honored at many events, including the Daytona 500 NASCAR race in 1986. The McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center in Concord and the Christa Corrigan McAuliffe Center for Education and Teaching Excellence at Framingham State University are named in her memory, as are the asteroid 3352 McAuliffe, the crater McAuliffe on the Moon, and a crater on the planet Venus, which was named McAuliffe by the Soviet Union. Approximately 40 schools around the world have been named after her, including the Christa McAuliffe Space Education Center in Pleasant Grove, Utah.

1990

In 1990, she was portrayed by Karen Allen in the TV movie Challenger. In 2019, McAuliffe was portrayed by Erika Waldorf in the independent film The Challenger Disaster. Michelle Williams is also expected to portray McAuliffe in The Challenger, a retelling of the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. The spaceship on the 1996–1997 children’s science-fiction series Space Cases, about a group of students lost in space, was called “Christa”. In 2006, a documentary film about her and Morgan called Christa McAuliffe: Reach for the Stars aired on CNN in the CNN Presents format. The film, produced by Renee Sotile and Mary Jo Godges, commemorated the 20th anniversary of her death. It was narrated by Susan Sarandon, and included an original song by Carly Simon.

1992

Her parents worked with Framingham State College to establish the McAuliffe Center. Her husband Steven J. McAuliffe remarried and in 1992 became a federal judge, serving with the United States District Court for the District of New Hampshire in Concord. Her son, Scott, completed graduate studies in marine biology, and her daughter, Caroline, went on to pursue the same career as her mother: teaching. On July 23, 2004, she and all the other 13 astronauts lost in both the Challenger and Columbia disasters were posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor by President George W. Bush.

1998

Barbara Morgan, her backup, became a professional astronaut in January 1998, and flew on Space Shuttle mission STS-118, to the International Space Station, on August 8, 2007, aboard Endeavour, the orbiter that replaced Challenger.

2015

In 2015, Christa was named in the Frank Turner song “Silent Key”, recounting the flight of the Challenger and its crew.

2016

On January 28, 2016, several teachers who competed alongside McAuliffe for a seat on the Challenger traveled to Cape Canaveral, Florida for a 30th anniversary remembrance service, along with her widower, Steven and son, Scott. After remarking that 30 years had passed, Steven said “Challenger will always be an event that occurred just recently. Our thoughts and memories of Christa will always be fresh and comforting.” In 2017, McAuliffe was inducted into the International Air & Space Hall of Fame at the San Diego Air & Space Museum.

2019

In 2019, Congress passed the Christa McAuliffe Commemorative Coin Act which was signed into law by President Trump on October 9, 2019. The bill allows the Department of the Treasury to “issue not more than 350,000 $1 silver coins in commemoration of Christa McAuliffe.” The coins will be minted in 2021.

Upcoming Birthday

Currently, Christa McAuliffe is 73 years, 8 months and 20 days old. Christa McAuliffe will celebrate 74th birthday on a Friday 2nd of September 2022.

Find out about Christa McAuliffe birthday activities in timeline view here.

Christa McAuliffe trends


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