Legacy
McAuliffe was buried at Blossom Hill Cemetery in her hometown of Concord. McAuliffe has since been honored at many events, including the Daytona 500 NASCAR race in 1986. She was posthumously awarded the Frank J. Malina Astronautics Medal later that year. The McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center in Concord, Christa McAuliffe Middle School in Stockton, California, the Christa Corrigan McAuliffe Center for Education and Teaching Excellence at Framingham State University, the Christa McAuliffe Intermediate School in Brooklyn, NY, McAuliffe elementary in Green Bay, Wisconsin, the McAuliffe Branch Library in Framingham, MA, the Christa McAuliffe Adult Learning Center in Baton Rouge, LA, the S. Christa McAuliffe Elementary School in Lowell, Massachusetts, the S. Crista McAuliffe Elementary School in Germantown, Maryland, Christa McAuliffe Elementary School in Highland Village, TX, Christa McAuliffe Elementary School in Sammamish, Washington and Christa McAuliffe Middle School in Jackson, NJ, Christa McAuliffe Middle School in Bay City, MI, Christa McAuliffe Middle School in Boynton Beach, FL, IS 187 - Christa McAuliffe in Brooklyn, New York, and The Christa McAuliffe Residential Community (CMRC) dorm and wellness center on the campus of her alma mater of Bowie State University in Bowie, Maryland, Christa McAuliffe Elementary School in Saratoga, California, Christa McAuliffe Park in Cameron Park, California, and the S. Christa McAuliffe STEM Academy in Greeley, CO, were all 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 McAuliffe, including the Christa McAuliffe Space Education Center in Pleasant Grove, Utah. Christa McAuliffe Park in Green Bay, WI is named after her. Christa McAuliffe Middle School in Houston, TX is named in her memory.
Scholarships and other events have also been established in McAuliffe's 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. Grants in McAuliffe's 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, her hometown of Concord New Hampshire opened the McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center. The center is "dedicated to the New Hampshire space pioneers Christa McAuliffe and Alan Shepard. The facility is a 45,000 square feet air and space museum easily accessible to all of New England and mid coast states. The museum features a vintage Crusader Jet and is one of only five planetariums in all of North America with a 10K projection system. The planetarium features engaging displays with several showings each day, constantly rotating new, imaginative and entertaining shows.
The Christa McAuliffe Space Center in Pleasant Grove, Utah, teaches school children about space, and is visited by students from around the world. It has a number of space flight simulators. The center was started in 1990 by Victor Williamson, an educator at Central Elementary School. It is a 4,000-square-foot (370 m2) building added onto Central Elementary. It aims to teach astronomy and social studies through the use of simulators; the first, Voyager, proved itself popular, and a new planetarium was added in 2020. As the years passed, the demand for flights expanded and new ships were commissioned.
McAuliffe's parents worked with Framingham State College to establish the McAuliffe Center. Her husband, Steven J. McAuliffe, later remarried, and in 1992 became a federal judge, serving with the United States District Court for the District of New Hampshire in Concord. Her 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.
On January 28, 2016, several teachers who competed alongside McAuliffe for a seat on the Challenger traveled to Cape Canaveral, Florida, for a 30th anniversary remembrance service, along with her widower, Steven, and son, Scott. After remarking that 30 years had passed, Steven said "Challenger will always be an event that occurred just recently. Our thoughts and memories of Christa will always be fresh and comforting." In 2017, McAuliffe was inducted into the International Air & Space Hall of Fame at the San Diego Air & Space Museum. In 2019, Congress passed the Christa McAuliffe Commemorative Coin Act which was signed into law by President Donald Trump on October 9, 2019. The bill allows the Department of the Treasury to "issue not more than 350,000 $1 silver coins in commemoration of Christa McAuliffe." The coins were minted in 2021.
The 2024 documentary Christa: From Ordinary to Extraordinary by New Hampshire PBS looks at her life in New Hampshire and Concord, with people she knew talking about what she wanted for students to know about the role of women in history. On September 2, 2024, McAuliffe's 76th birthday, a statue of the astronaut was unveiled at the New Hampshire State Capitol. The statue, sculpted by artist Benjamin Victor, is the first statue of a woman on the state house grounds. Inscribed on the side of the statue's pedestal is a quote from McAuliffe: "I touch the future, I teach".
