NASA Picks N.H. Woman as First Teacher on Shuttle

Sharon Christa McAuliffe, a 36-year-old high school social studies teacher from Concord, N.H., Friday was named to fly aboard the space shuttle Challenger in January, making her the first private citizen assigned to a space mission.

Vice President George Bush announced McAuliffe’s selection and said Barbara Morgan, 33, a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Stanford University who is a second-grade teacher in McCall, Ida., will serve as her backup in case McAuliffe can’t go.

Both teachers, selected from 10 finalists, will report to the Johnson Space Center in Houston in September to begin training for the weeklong orbital mission.

“It’s not often that a teacher is at a loss for words,” McAuliffe said at the White House ceremony. “I know my students wouldn’t think so. I’ve made nine wonderful friends over the last two weeks and when that shuttle goes, there might be one body, but there’s going to be 10 souls I’m taking with me,” she said, appearing to be overcome with emotion.

McAuliffe, who has a special interest in women’s issues and history, has said she plans to write a detailed personal journal of events before and during the flight, much as women traveling westward in Conestoga wagons did.

She has a reserved seat for the planned Jan. 22 blastoff of Challenger to share the extraordinary experience of flying around Earth at 17,000 m.p.h. with a crew of five NASA astronauts.

McAuliffe, who has an 8-year-old-son and a 5-year-old daughter, told reporters afterward outside the White House that she had learned of her selection a few minutes before Bush made the official announcement.

“I’m not an astronaut,” she said. “That’s not what I am. I’m a space participant.” Part of her duties on board the Challenger will be to “probably stay out of the way when they launch the two satellites,” she said with a laugh.

“I’m still kind of floating. I don’t know when I’ll come down to earth,” said the veteran of 15 years in the classroom. She said she earns “a little over $20,000.” Her husband is a lawyer.

Morgan was asked if she was disappointed. “I think we’re all going to go someday,” she replied.

President Reagan announced last August that a teacher would be the first ordinary citizen to be given the chance to fly in space. NASA received 11,416 applications and from them the finalists were named July 1.