The explosion of the 1986 NASA Challenger mission took the life of New Hampshire teacher Christa McAuliffe, along with all other crew members.
In the 40 years since, McAuliffe has become a household name, and many Granite Staters still remember the day of the accident.
So, for January’s Big Question, we asked you: How has Christa McAuliffe’s legacy touched your life?
Here’s what some of you said.
Matt - Rochester, NH: Christa was a teacher of mine at Concord High School. Technically, I didn't have her as a teacher, but I was in the high school when all the space shuttle Challenger stuff happened. So certainly I was there to witness everything in the aftermath. Through the years, teaching has always been something that I've wanted to do and have been in the classroom for 28 years now, teaching social studies, just like Christa McAuliffe. Her messages have resonated with me over the years. I teach lessons about the Challenger every year, right around the same time in January, just so that my students know that history can be made by ordinary people, just like you and me.
Jennifer - Swanzey, NH: As a young person growing up in New Hampshire, I think I was very much aware of how important it was that Christa McAuliffe was chosen to be the person to go up on the space shuttle Challenger. And her being a teacher, I think, made her just more accessible. It made it more real for me as a child, and to have that loss and to be able to witness that loss, there was really a lot of confusion at my age, but I feel like I was very much aware how much she was a part of our state in New Hampshire, and it gave me a sense of place to know that she was somebody who was chosen or selected to participate in this amazing event.
Emily - Exeter, NH: I live in Exeter now, but when I was a kid, my family moved to Central Florida for my dad's work, and we lived near Orlando, but close enough to Cape Canaveral that we could see the shuttle [Challenger] being launched. What happened with the Challenger was a really seminal event for me. I was home sick from school that day, but because I always got excited about the shuttle launches, my mom said it was OK to go out and watch the launch for a minute. So we went out onto the driveway and we were looking east and everything looked normal at first, and then all of a sudden it didn't look the way it normally did. Afterwards, I wanted to know more about Christa McAuliffe. I remember I… read a book about her and just learned who she was as an astronaut, but also as a person. And she just became a person I looked up to in my life.
Nancy - Enfield, NH: Christa McAuliffe was really an inspiration to everyone. I didn't know her, but I knew of her through a lot of television programs and that sort of thing. But the fact that they were sending up a teacher who was prepared to enlarge the minds of not only students in schools, but everyone else... I just thought it was a fabulous thing. And to have her not be able to do that is a real loss in my opinion. We have a planetarium here in New Hampshire named after her, and she's still teaching even if she's not here.
