On Jan. 28, 1986, I was living with my infant son Jaki, stepdaughter Holly and their father in a community of floathouses in Mud Bight, 10 ½ miles north of Ketchikan, Alaska. Like my neighbors, my little red cabin atop a cedar log raft had no electricity, phone or cable. So I was unaware of the loss of Christa McAuliffe and her crewmates aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger until I headed to town two days later. As a new mother, shocked and saddened by the news, my first thoughts were of the children who had just lost their mother.
Eleven years later, Jaki and I left Alaska for New England. I applied to be executive director of the Christa McAuliffe Planetarium — not because of the association with Christa McAuliffe, but due to an abiding interest in astronomy and space exploration, and a love for New Hampshire. Not until I began working at the planetarium in January 1998 did I develop a deeper understanding of who Christa McAuliffe was, what she meant to Granite Staters and why she was chosen over 11,000 other applicants to be NASA’s first Teacher-in-Space.
I soon realized that to truly honor Christa and her mission and vision, the planetarium had to become something more. The first time I saw the place, it was dark and sad. With no parking lot, it was hard to find. Half the tiny lights along its entry walkway were broken. The interior felt mournful, with its low lighting and blue, gray and black color scheme. The planetarium equipment — state-of-the-art when first installed — was aging, subject to frequent breakdowns. Staff were primarily housed in a mechanical room with cement floors and walls next to a dirt berm, with no windows possible. My office was lovely, but right outside stood a display about the loss of the Challenger, including TV footage played on a never-ending loop of Christa’s parents watching as the Challenger exploded. In marked contrast, bright, happy children and families poured through the doors each day, not to mourn but to learn and explore. I turned off the TV and took the display down.
Seven months after I stepped into the job, America’s first astronaut, native Granite Stater Alan Shepard, passed away. Immediately, a group of planetarium commissioners, state officials, volunteers and staff began to discuss how best to honor Shepard. What if we jointly honored the legacies of Christa and Alan with a museum filled with light and life? A place of active learning and exploration with a 50-foot high atrium that made one’s spirit and imagination soar, complete with interactive, engaging exhibits indoors and out, an upgraded planetarium, an observatory and educational programs for community members young and old? We opened the McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center in March 2009, inspired to overcome all challenges we faced by the bravery of the teacher who flew to space and the fellow New England astronaut who inspired her to go.
We all will pass from this Earth someday. When we do, we want to be remembered for who we were, what we did, who and what we cared about, whose lives we touched — not for how we died. I am sure in my heart that Christa would feel the same way. So when Jan. 28 rolled around each year and the Discovery Center felt pressured to commemorate Christa’s loss instead of her life and legacy, we would do something respectful but low-key, and urge people to instead join us on Sept. 2, Christa’s birthday, to celebrate her. Some years we’d have birthday cake on Christa’s birthday weekend, some years we’d show a video or have programs about her life and her mission. I was truly delighted that Gov. Chris Sununu felt the same way, and arranged the unveiling and dedication of the bronze statue of Christa McAuliffe at New Hampshire’s State House lawn, on what would have been her 76th birthday.
For the 27 years that I helmed the science center dedicated to this intrepid educator, mother and spacefarer, I strove to create a place of learning and wonder that she and Alan Shepard would be proud to have bear their names. I met people from all over the world who traveled here to explore this living memorial. And I would recall Christa’s words, “I touch the future: I teach,” when encountering parents bringing their children to the Discovery Center who first visited years before, as children themselves, on school field trips! I got to see the future, as the young children inspired by Christa McAuliffe passed the torch of learning and exploration on to the next generation. Now retired, I enjoy seeing how imaginatively the Discovery Center’s new leadership and dedicated staff find ways to, in Christa’s words, “Reach for the stars!”
Jeanne Gerulskis is the former executive director of McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center, where she served for 27 years.