Sharon Christa Corrigan McAuliffe (September 2, 1948 – January 28, 1986) was an American teacher from Concord, New Hampshire who was selected from among more than 11,000 applicants to participate in the NASA Teacher in Space Project. She was one of seven crew members killed in the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.

As a youth, she was inspired by the Apollo moon landing program, and wrote years later on her NASA application form that "I watched the Space Age being born, and I would like to participate!" In 1984, she learned about NASA's efforts to locate an educator to fly on the Space Shuttle. NASA wanted a teacher, or an ordinary person who would spark the interests of the Americans further into the studies of space. The intent was to find a gifted teacher who could communicate with students while in orbit.

NASA selected McAuliffe for this position on July 19, 1985. After being chosen to be the first teacher in space, McAuliffe was interviewed by many TV personalities, including the likes of Larry King, Johnny Carson, David Letterman, and Regis Philbin. She had an immediate rapport with the media, and the Teacher in Space Project received tremendously popular attention as a result. It is in part because of the excitement over McAuliffe's presence on Challenger that the accident had such a significant effect on the nation.

Legacy

She was posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor.

The Christa McAuliffe Planetarium in Concord, New Hampshire and the Christa McAuliffe Space Education Center in Pleasant Grove, Utah are named in her memory, as are asteroid 3352 McAuliffe and the McAuliffe crater on the Moon. At least 35 schools have been named after her.

The Christa McAuliffe Technology Conference has been held every year in Nashua, New Hampshire since 1986. The conference is devoted to educational technology, with a broad vendor presence and presenters both from technology companies and from regional schools, with an emphasis on curricular technology use and classroom management techniques.

from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christa_McAuliffe