Her laugh was contagious. Her mission was electrifying. Her plans for the future were inspiring.

Christa McAuliffe was the perfect choice for the Teacher in Space program. She understood that she was an ordinary person bringing us all along on her extraordinary journey.

It was a responsibility she took to heart. Christa sought to document her experiences and share them with the American public, to make the Space Age relatable and to illuminate the vital importance of teachers everywhere. Christa believed in the power of education and motivated her students, both literally and metaphorically, to “reach for the stars.” She reached students in their despondency and social isolation and drew them out. She validated them as people.

Since the Challenger disaster in 1986, her story has been told and retold numerous times. This special project explores her legacy as a teacher, astronaut, pioneer woman and ordinary citizen. Here in Concord, 40 years later, we remember her especially as one of our own.

READ OUR 16-PAGE COMMEMORATIVE SECTION

‘Their mission will continue’: Remembering the Challenger crew by bringing science education to future generations  

The Challenger Center was created by the families of the seven astronauts who died in the Challenger Shuttle tragedy to honor their legacy and provide students with the opportunity to experience the thrill of space exploration through interactive mission simulations. Read about how their “living legacies” live on in the world today.

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Avatar photo by Rachel Wachman

Forty years later, NASA and those who knew Christa McAuliffe still ‘mourn the loss of our friends’

Bob Foerster understood the risks of the mission had he been selected. In the summer of 1985, six months before the Space Shuttle Challenger launched, all ten finalists for the Teacher in Space program understood. They had come from every part of the country, representing their profession and yearning to touch the cosmos. They had…

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Avatar photo by Rebeca Pereira

The Challenger story, as told by author Adam Higginbotham, rivets, humanizes and informs

Adam Higginbotham is the author of ‘Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space,’ a narrative account of the first tragedy to mark NASA’s shuttle program. Higginbotham spoke to the Monitor about the discoveries of his reporting process, his fidelity to the precise science of space exploration and the personal stories of each Challenger crewmember and his interest in the mid-to-late 1980s — a period of time on the cusp of becoming history. He explained his intention to treat “something that had happened only 30 years ago as you would treat events in Victorian England…

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by Rebeca Pereira

The Monitor Weekly | A walking and listening tour of ‘Christa’s Legacy’ in Concord

This is an excerpt from The Monitor Weekly episode accompanying our series, ‘Christa’s Legacy: Concord’s pioneer woman, the world’s teacher.’ Listen to the episode above and follow the walking tour below to experience living history. Bare trees surround White Park in Concord. Branches heavy with snow reach skyward like rawboned fingers. New Hampshire is frigid and serene this time of year. Low temperatures made this the first winter in recent memory when the White Park pond opened for public skating before January first. The wind whistles and bites at bare skin. Somewhere among this silent platoon of trees are seven…

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by Rebeca Pereira

‘Our lives won’t be the same without her’: Monitor reporter and Christa biographer reflects

Robert ‘Bob’ Hohler shadowed Christa McAuliffe for 200 days. He first met her when the Concord Monitor sent him to Houston in July of 1985 to cover her participation as one of the top ten finalists in NASA’s Teacher in Space competition. “On the afternoon I arrived, we sat on a cool granite bench in the shade and talked about her home, her family, her fears, her dreams,” Hohler wrote in the preface of his book “‘I touch the future…’ The story of Christa McAuliffe,” published in 1986. As Vice President George Bush announced her selection, Hohler stood there among…

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by Rachel Wachman

In their classrooms, children learn about ‘New Hampshire’s Christa’ where her legacy speaks the loudest

At the start of each school year, Kimberly Bleier stands before a new crop of students taking her Street Law course at Concord High School and does not presume they know much about Christa McAuliffe. Four decades have elapsed since the euphoria of McAuliffe’s selection as the Teacher in Space swept Concord. Even students at Concord High School who recognize her name may not know exactly who she was. Most don’t realize she taught there, according to Bleier, head of the school’s history department, and nearly all assume she was a science teacher. Bleier dedicates time to that conversation. She…

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by Rebeca Pereira

The singular magic of having learned from Christa McAuliffe

Grief still catches in MaryJo Drewn’s throat when she tries to talk about the Challenger tragedy. She can still feel the harrowed silence of the auditorium at Concord High School, where she and other students gathered to watch the space shuttle launch in January of 1986.  Moments earlier, the room full of young adults buzzed with a shrill chorus of noisemakers. A pall of confusion settled over the room when, 73 seconds after liftoff, the shuttle exploded. “You could hear a pin drop.” But when Drewn thinks of Christa McAuliffe, who respected every student’s personhood and who demonstrated that history…

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by Rebeca Pereira

Pioneer woman, wife, mother, teacher: A profile of Christa McAuliffe

Christa McAuliffe, a Concord High School social studies teacher, was selected as the first private citizen to venture to space. Christa, who was born in Boston in 1948, was the eldest of five children and grew up watching the era of space exploration unfold on television. She applied for the Teacher in Space program, hoping to inspire others to pursue their dreams. Christa was a pioneer, even before her space adventure, founding a course called “The American Woman” at Concord High School, which centered on the social history of everyday women throughout the decades.

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by Rachel Wachman

Christa, in her own words

The best way to learn about Christa McAuliffe is to let her tell you herself. To that end, the Monitor has sifted through its archive and curated a selection of quotes to show who she was as a person and the values she held close. Here she is, indelible as ever, in her own authentic voice.

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by Rachel Wachman

‘A pioneer space traveler’: Excerpts from Christa McAuliffe’s Teacher in Space application

Christa McAuliffe’s Teacher in Space application captures the essence of her desire to voyage beyond Earth. From the moment she decided to apply, she kept her students abreast of her progress, making every effort to include them in her journey as much as she could. This excerpt from her application was previously published in the Monitor in 1986. Stay tuned for more Monitor coverage of Christa McAuliffe and her legacy coming soon. Why do you want to be the first U.S. private citizen in space? I remember the excitement in my home when the first satellites were launched. My parents…

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Meet the Challenger crew

Profile: Gregory Jarvis

Gregory Jarvis, a 40-year-old engineer, was selected from 600 candidates to join the Challenger STS-51L crew and study liquids in weightless environments. He was ecstatic at the prospect of flying in the shuttle in January 1986.

Avatar photo by Rachel Wachman

Profile: Mission Specialist Judith Resnik

Judith Resnik, the first Jewish American astronaut and the second woman in space, was an accomplished pianist and scientist who was awarded the Space Flight Medal of Honor for her work on the robotic arm. She was killed in the space shuttle Challenger on Jan. 28. 1986.

Avatar photo by Rachel Wachman

Profile: Mission Specialist Ellison Onizuka

Ellison Onizuka, the first Asian American in space, is remembered for his legacy of pioneering exploration and finding humor in the world around him. Onizuka’s soccer ball, recovered from the wreck of the Challenger, went up to the International Space Station decades later, symbolically completing his mission.

Avatar photo by Rachel Wachman

Profile: Pilot Michael Smith

Challenger Pilot Michael Smith’s journey to becoming an astronaut took him from the Naval Academy to test pilot school to NASA. He is remembered for his dedication to family, and his legacy in space exploration.

Avatar photo by Rachel Wachman

Profile: Mission Specialist Ronald McNair

Ronald E. McNair, the second African American in space, was a determined and talented astronaut who used his saxophone and karate skills to express himself, and is remembered through numerous monuments and programs established in his name.

Avatar photo by Rachel Wachman

Profile: Commander Francis Richard “Dick” Scobee

Francis Richard “Dick” Scobee achieved his dream of flying airplanes by joining the Air Force and eventually becoming an astronaut, piloting a satellite repair mission on the space shuttle Challenger before tragically passing away on the 1986 mission. He was a family man who enjoyed staying active, painting, repairing things and, of course, flying.

Avatar photo by Rachel Wachman

Our collaboration with the McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center

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Credit: RACHEL WACHMAN / Monitor

Community voices

The Monitor invites you to continue learning about Christa McAuliffe, the Challenger crew and their mission through the following selection of reading and viewing material.

Further reading

‘I Touch the Future: The Story of Christa McAuliffe’, a book by Robert Hohler

‘Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space’, a book by Adam Higginbotham

‘The burning blue: The untold story of Christa McAuliffe and NASA’s Challenger Disaster’, a book by Kevin Cook

‘Children’s Symptoms in the Wake of Challenger: A Field Study of Distant-Traumatic Effects and an Outline of Related Conditions’, a 1999 study in the American Journal of Psychology

Further viewing

‘Christa’, a documentary by Kathleen Young for New Hampshire PBS

‘Challenger: The Final Flight’, a Netflix Documentary

Archival footage collected by Concord Channel 12 and preserved by the Concord Historical Society

Methodology and acknowledgments

Forty years ago, two Monitor reporters followed Christa McAuliffe’s voyage into space: Robert Hohler and Ralph Jimenez. Decades later, Rebeca Pereira and Rachel Wachman began reporting on her enduring legacy as a teacher, a pioneer, and an explorer. 

Their extensive work allows us all to rediscover what made her such an inspiration. Due to the personal nature of these stories, the Monitor chose to refer to Christa by her first name, encapsulating the essence of who she was: an ordinary person who believed in the power of everyday individuals.

Pereira and Wachman sought to capture the legacies of all seven Challenger crewmembers, acknowledging but not dwelling on the disaster that prematurely ended their lives. Throughout the past few months, they have spoken with over three dozen people who either have a personal tie to the Challenger crew or have been impacted by their legacy in some way. 

In the fall, the pair ventured together to Framingham State University, Christa’s alma mater, where a Challenger Learning Center offers mission simulations that foster curiosity about space for younger generations. Pereira and Wachman mined the Monitor’s archive of photos and stories, as well as the trove of video footage from Concord Channel 12, stewarded by the Concord Historical Society over the decades. Visits to the McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center produced archival finds, too, including condolence cards, news reports and art from around the world.

Pereira centered her reporting in Concord, interviewing Christa’s former students, eye-witnesses to the Challenger tragedy and community members who carry on the teacher in space’s legacy. She also traveled to Cape Canaveral for NASA’s annual Day of Remembrance. Meanwhile, Wachman focused her efforts on bringing to life the Challenger’s crew, their mission and their living legacy in education, as well as chronicling the evolution of space exploration and the paths of educator astronauts who followed in Christa’s footsteps.

Many people proved instrumental to facilitating this reporting process, although their names do not appear in print. The Monitor would like to thank John McBrine at NASA’s Johnson Space Center and Julia Barney at the Astronauts Memorial Foundation; Jennifer Kretovic at the Concord Historical Society; retired Associated Press reporter David Tirrell-Wysocki, of Canterbury; the staff at the McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center; and Anna Tucker at the Framingham History Center.