Callan McAuliffe

Ladies and Gentlemen, I’d planned to speak to you tonight to report on the state of the Union, but the events of earlier today have led me to change those plans. Today is a day for mourning and remembering. Nancy and I are pained to the core by the tragedy of the shuttle Challenger. We know we share this pain with all of the people of our country. This is truly a national loss. Nineteen years ago, almost to the day, we lost three astronauts in a terrible accident on the ground. But, we’ve...Read Full Story

Twenty-five years ago today, Concord, New Hampshire, was abuzz with excitement as teacher Christa McAuliffe was about to make history. Thousands of educators had applied to be the first teacher in space, but NASA chose McAuliffe, a 10th-grade social studies teacher at Concord High School. Micaela Pond, who was 17 and McAuliffe's neighbor at the time, remembers getting a ride home one day from the teacher turned astronaut. She still recalls giggling when McAuliffe first told her she wanted to...Read Full Story

CNN was the only national news station to broadcast the mission live, so thus what you are witnessing on this video is the only coverage of the disaster as it happened when it did. Approximately 17% of Americans witnessed the launch live, while 85% of Americans heard of the news within 1 hour of the event. According to a study, only 2 other times in history up to that point had news of an event disseminated so fast - the first being the announcement of JFK's assassination in 1963, the...Read Full Story

The crew of the space shuttle Challenger, which exploded 25 years ago because of faulty o-rings in the shuttle's booster rockets. Left to right: Ellison Onizuka, Mike Smith, Christa McAuliffe, Dick Scobee, Greg Jarvis, Ron McNair and Judy Resnick. He was one of seven crew members who died when the space shuttle Challenger exploded in 1986 and who, for most of us, are forever frozen in a well-known group photo. Greg Jarvis and his team, including teacher Christa McAuliffe, are holding their...Read Full Story

NASA is remembering three major space-related tragedies this week, beginning with the 25th anniversary of the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion on Friday. “This year marks the 25th anniversary of the loss of the Challenger—a tragedy that caused us to completely rethink our systems and processes as we worked to make the shuttle safer,” said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. Together with deputy administrator Lori Garver, Bolden honored the lives of those lost in Apollo 1 and space shuttles...Read Full Story