NASA

christa mcauliffe NASA portrait

An official NASA photo of Christa McAuliffe holding a model of the Challenger shuttle. McAuliffe, a teacher from New Hampshire, was chosen by NASA to be the first civilian to go into space along with six regular shuttle crew members. The trip ended tragically when the Challenger exploded 73 seconds after takeoff on January 28, 1986.

See our biography of Christa McAuliffe