Women of Space

Inspiration: Christa McAuliffe
An American teacher from Concord, New Hampshire, McAuliffe was chosen from among 11,000 applicants to participate in NASA's Teacher in Space project. The goal of the program was to have a non-professional astronaut teach from space, in order to inspire young people to learn about math, science and space exploration. McAuliffe won great notoriety in the months prior to her launch by talking to the media about her mission. When the Challenger exploded during take-off in 1986, McAuliffe was killed along with the rest of the crew, but the memory of her advocacy lives in the form of schools and planetariums named in her honor.

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