{"id":256926,"date":"2026-01-29T02:57:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T02:57:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/256926\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T02:57:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T02:57:17","slug":"she-was-supposed-to-be-the-first-teacher-in-space-40-years-later-her-mission-continues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/256926\/","title":{"rendered":"She was supposed to be the first teacher in space. 40 years later, her mission continues"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n NASA\u2019s Space Shuttle Challenger lifted off 40 years ago with an unusual crew. In addition to six astronauts, the mission took flight with a teacher on board.\n <\/p>\n

\n Christa McAuliffe, the first educator selected for a new Teacher in Space Project, said in a news conference before the flight that she believed the mission would \u201copen up the idea that space is for everybody.\u201d With the goal of inspiring students to indulge in scientific curiosity, the crew planned to deploy and retrieve an astronomy experiment to study Halley\u2019s Comet and even teach lessons from orbit during their six-day mission. But it never happened.\n <\/p>\n

\n The spacecraft exploded 73 seconds after launching on January 28, 1986, claiming the lives of Commander Francis R. \u201cDick\u201d Scobee, Pilot Michael J. Smith, Mission Specialists Judith A. Resnik, Ellison S. Onizuka and Ronald E. McNair, Payload Specialists Gregory B. Jarvis and McAuliffe \u2014 as teachers and students glued to TVs in classrooms across the US looked on.\n <\/p>\n

\"Challenger<\/p>\n

\n Even after the tragedy, family members of the Challenger astronauts wanted to carry on with a piece of their loved ones\u2019 mission.\n <\/p>\n

\n Scobee\u2019s widow, Dr. June Scobee Rodgers, recalled having a light-bulb moment on how to do that while sitting next to then-First Lady Nancy Reagan at an event in memory of the Challenger crew the year of the tragedy.\n <\/p>\n

\n She told Reagan she knew that NASA would continue to launch space missions but questioned who would continue the work of educating and inspiring children so they may develop an interest in space.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThat\u2019s where the idea came from,\u201d Scobee Rodgers said in a video<\/a> shared by the Challenger Center this month to mark the 40th anniversary of the tragedy. \u201cCan we remember our loved ones by continuing their mission and make it an education mission?\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\"Dr.<\/p>\n

\n The families of the Challenger crew created the Challenger Center for Space Science Education in April 1986 and opened the first center in Houston in 1988. Today, there are 32 centers across the country designed to provide students with immersive science, technology, engineering and math experiences such as simulated missions to space. The nonprofit organization also provides virtual experiences<\/a> and free lesson plans for classrooms and estimates that they have reached more than 7 million students globally.\n <\/p>\n

\n To honor the 40th anniversary of the loss of Challenger, the center has released seven STEM lesson plans inspired by the crew<\/a> and has several events planned<\/a> for this spring.\n <\/p>\n

\n As NASA\u2019s Artemis II mission prepares to lift off on a journey around the moon as soon as next month, and commercial companies continue to increase access to space, there are many opportunities to join the \u201cspace business,\u201d said Mike Kincaid, president and executive director of the Challenger Center. Preparing students, parents and educators for understanding and navigating the variety of STEM career options available is more crucial than ever, he said.\n <\/p>\n

\n McAuliffe started out as a student dreaming of the stars.\n <\/p>\n

\n She said her experience watching the Apollo missions years earlier had inspired her to apply for the Teacher in Space Project in 1984, writing on her application, \u201cI watched the Space Age being born and I would like to participate.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\"Christa<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

\n Though the Challenger disaster brought an end to Teacher in Space, educators in the years since have found other paths to orbit.\n <\/p>\n

\n Barbara Morgan, an elementary school teacher who had trained as McAuliffe\u2019s backup, continued public outreach, STEM education initiatives and curriculum development with NASA for several years after the tragedy. She went on to join the astronaut class in 1998 and flew to space in 2007, assisting with efforts to build the International Space Station.\n <\/p>\n

\n In 2004, NASA created a new initiative for what it called the Educator Astronaut Project, selecting several teachers to become fully trained as astronauts.\n <\/p>\n

\n Among those selected was Dottie Metcalf-Lindenburger.\n <\/p>\n

\n The daughter of two teachers, she pursued geology in college and was hired by the Peace Corps to teach English in Kazakhstan. But right before she set off on her two-year assignment, instability in the region canceled her plans. Metcalf-Lindenburger pivoted to teaching, focusing on Earth science and astronomy, which included a small unit on human spaceflight.\n <\/p>\n

\n During a lesson, a student asked her how astronauts use the bathroom in space, prompting Metcalf-Lindenburger to seek out the answer. While searching on NASA\u2019s website, she saw that the agency was seeking teachers as part of the 2004 astronaut class.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI had this dream when I was a young kid about becoming an astronaut and a real passion for space, and all of a sudden is this opportunity to fly because I am a science teacher,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m really glad that student was curious.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\"Dottie<\/p>\n

\n NASA chose Metcalf-Lindenburger, Joseph Acaba and Richard \u201cRicky\u201d Arnold to be educator-astronauts.\n <\/p>\n

\n Aboard the International Space Station in 2018, Acaba and Arnold helped bring to life the variety of science lessons that McAuliffe <\/a> had intended to film from space.\n <\/p>\n

\n Metcalf-Lindenburger completed her shuttle mission to the ISS in 2010 before commanding the NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operation in the Aquarius Reef Habitat off the Florida coast in 2012. She retired from the astronaut corps in 2014, but she wasn\u2019t done with space education yet.\n <\/p>\n

\n After visiting one of the Challenger Center\u2019s locations in Colorado Springs, where she saw dozens of students working together to solve issues and achieve success for a simulated mission, Metcalf-Lindenburger joined the center\u2019s board of directors.\n <\/p>\n

\n The experiments and simulations at Challenger Centers, as well as their online resources, are designed to foster confidence in STEM knowledge, boost team collaboration skills and teach kids how to work through unexpected challenges.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cAs a teacher, you might have one or two students that just stop caring,\u201d Metcalf-Lindenburger said. \u201cThey stop doing work and you\u2019re always trying to really cheer them on. There was not one kid that wasn\u2019t totally engaged in doing this.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\"Students<\/p>\n

\n NASA engineer Kenneth F. Harris II was once one of those kids hooked by the Challenger Center experience.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cChallenger allowed me to see what kind of skills that you really needed to be to be within this space,\u201d said Harris, who serves on Challenger Center\u2019s Board of Directors. He called his school field trip to the center a core memory.\n <\/p>\n

\n Harris\u2019 father was an engineer at NASA\u2019s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and he would often spend time in his dad\u2019s office after school.\n <\/p>\n

\n He recalled passing a photo called the \u201cPillars of Creation\u201d<\/a> taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, and it sparked a passion within him for discovering the secrets of the universe.\n <\/p>\n

\"Hubble<\/p>\n

\n As a teenager, Harris began interning at NASA. A photo captured when Harris was just 17 shows him wearing his high school class ring while working on a circuit board \u2014 one that would eventually fly on the James Webb Space Telescope.\n <\/p>\n

\n In his 20s, Harris served as the deputy lead integration engineer for Webb Telescope, leading a team to connect the main electronic payload of the observatory. Things came full circle when he was able to show his children the Webb Telescope\u2019s new version of the Pillars of Creation.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI\u2019m hoping that in some way, it sparks a curiosity in them to explore beyond where we are now,\u201d Harris said.\n <\/p>\n

\n These days, he serves as a senior project engineer for The Aerospace Corporation and still contributes to NASA missions. When he speaks to students, Harris shares his honest experience \u2014 how he needed to retake math courses in high school and almost dropped out of his engineering program in college because the concepts were difficult. Working through those challenges and connecting with others along the way helped him reach where he is today, Harris said.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cOne thing that I always tell students is that none of us build a satellite or go to space on our own,\u201d Harris said. \u201cThis journey of discovery is a collaborative experience.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\"Kenneth<\/p>\n

\n When he reaches out to alumni that have participated in the Challenger Center and went on to work in STEM careers, he encourages them to also give back some of their time to the next generation by sharing their own stories. Through those connections, something born out of a tragic accident has become a celebration of what the Challenger crew stood for, Harris added.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cChallenger should be seen as a tragedy, but it was turned into something that has just made folks\u2019 lives better,\u201d Harris said. \u201cI\u2019m so appreciative of what Scobee Rodgers and the rest of the families have afforded us.\u201d\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NASA\u2019s Space Shuttle Challenger lifted off 40 years ago with an unusual crew. In addition to six astronauts,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":256927,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[111,139,69,147,392],"class_list":["post-256926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=256926"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256926\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/256927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}