On March 3rd, Melissa Edwards, Executive Director of the McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center (Concord NH), addressed the Rotary Club of Nashua regarding, the 40th anniversary of the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster and the McAuliffe Shepard Discovery Center in Concord NH.
Christa was born in Boston, MA and raised in Framingham MA. Oldest of 5 children and known by her middle name. Christa became a history teacher after graduating from Framingham state and completing a master’s degree at Bowie State University. Christa relocated to Concord NH teaching for Concord High School in 1983. The teacher in space program started under the Regan administration in 1984. The program was designed to take teachers to space as payload specialists (non-astronaut civilian). Christa was selected as the primary candidate by NASA out of 11,500 applicants on July 19, 1985. Vice President George Bush made the announcement regarding Christa’s selection to the program. Christa trained for 2 months with the Challenger crew prior to the mission at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, TX. The Challenger mission was delayed due to weather multiple times. The Challenger disaster occurred on January 28th, 1986. The cause of the disaster was due to failure of o-rings in the right solid rocket booster. The crew (STS-51- L Crew) consisted of 7 passengers. The Christa McAuliffe planetarium opened in 1990. The first statue in 50 years was dedicated last year at the NH state house in honor of Christa.
Alan Shepard Born in1923 and graduated from Pinkerton Academy. Alan was the first American to go to space in 1961 aboard the Mercury-Redstone 3 Rocket. He also flew on the Apollo 14 mission January 31st – February 9th 1971 and walked on the moon.
The McAuliffe Shepard Discovery Center in Concord NH is dedicated to NH space pioneers Christa McAuliffe and Alan Shepard, the McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center is a 45,000-square-foot air and space museum in the heart of Northern New England, with indoor and outdoor exhibits, an observatory, a vibrant program series, a vintage 1956 Crusader jet, one of only three planetariums in all of North America with a 10K projection system and an outdoor Science Playground! The McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center Offers Various Programs Related to Astronomy, Aviation, Earth, and Space Science. These include STEM Summer Camps, school visits, outreach programs where we come to you, and more.