Teacher and Astronaut, Christa McAuliffe
On Jan. 26, students at R. L. Turner’s METSA (Math, Engineering, Technology and Science Academy) program launched rockets in honor of Christa McAuliffe. McAuliffe perished with her fellow astronauts when the space shuttle Challenger exploded shortly after launch on Jan. 28, 1986. This year marks the 31st anniversary of that event. McAuliffe was one of 11,000 teachers who applied to be part of the Teacher in Space program initiated by President Ronald Reagan in 1984. After McAuliffe was selected for the program, she trained with other NASA astronauts to prepare for their mission. McAuliffe had planned to lead students through experiments using microgravity, with her lessons broadcasted via satellite.
METSA students built the rockets from scratch, not from kits. In their rocket building projects, they must balance the payload so that the rocket fires along the planned trajectory.
Click here to learn more about METSA.
Click here to see video footage of the rocket launch
Click here to see more photos from the rocket launch.
