Christa McAuliffe - Legacy

Legacy

McAuliffe's remains were buried at Blossom Hill Cemetery in Concord, New Hampshire. She has since been honored at many events, including the Daytona 500 auto race in 1986. The Christa McAuliffe Planetarium/McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center in Concord, the Christa Corrigan Hennessy Center for Education and Teaching Excellence at Framingham State College, and the Christa McAuliffe Residential Community building at Bowie State University are named in her memory, as are the asteroid 3352 McAuliffe, the crater McAuliffe on the Moon, and a crater on the planet Venus, which was named McAuliffe by the Soviet Union. Approximately 40 schools around the world have been named after her, including the Christa McAuliffe Space Education Center in Pleasant Grove, Utah. The nurse's cabin at Camp Wabasso in New Hampshire is named after McAuliffe because she attended the camp as a Girl Scout. There is also a display case with her picture and other artifacts in one of the hallways.

Scholarships and other events have also been established in her memory. The Christa McAuliffe Technology Conference has been held in Nashua, New Hampshire, every year since 1986, and is devoted to the use of technology in all aspects of education. The Nebraska McAuliffe Prize honors a Nebraska teacher each year for courage and excellence in education. At Bishop Eustace Preparatory School in New Jersey, the science building is named after McAuliffe in honor of her heroic actions. Grants in her name, honoring innovative teachers, are provided by the American Association of State Colleges and Universities and the National Council for the Social Studies.

In 1990, McAuliffe was portrayed by Karen Allen in the TV movie Challenger. The spaceship on the 1996–1997 children's science-fiction series Space Cases, about a group of students lost in space, was called "Christa". In 2006, a documentary film about McAuliffe and Morgan called Christa McAuliffe: Reach for the Stars aired on CNN in the CNN Presents format. The film, produced by Renee Sotile and Mary Jo Godges, commemorated the 20th anniversary of McAuliffe's death. The 75-minute feature version was narrated by Susan Sarandon, and included an original song by Carly Simon.

McAuliffe's parents worked with Framingham State College to establish the McAuliffe Center for Education. Her husband Steven J. McAuliffe remarried and in 1992 became a federal judge, serving with the United States District Court for the District of New Hampshire in Concord. McAuliffe's son Scott completed graduate studies in marine biology, and her daughter Caroline went on to pursue the same career as her mother: teaching. On July 23, 2004, McAuliffe and all the other 13 astronauts lost in both the Challenger and Columbia disasters were posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor by President George W. Bush.