Steven J. McAuliffe Steven J. McAuliffe Steven James McAuliffe (born March 3, 1948) is a Senior United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the District of New Hampshire. He is the widower of Christa McAuliffe, one of the victims of the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, he attended Marian High School in Framingham, where he met his future wife Christa Corrigan. He graduated from Virginia Military Institute with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1970. His wife had his VMI ring with her on the shuttle; his classmates replaced the ring after her death. McAuliffe
Christa McAuliffe (NASA paid both their salaries.) While not a member of the NASA Astronaut Corps, McAuliffe was to be part of the STS-51-L crew, and would conduct experiments and teach lessons from space. Her planned duties included basic science experiments in the fields of chromatography, hydroponics, magnetism, and Newton's laws. She was also planning to conduct two 15-minute classes from space, including a tour of the spacecraft, called "The Ultimate Field Trip", and a lesson about the benefits of space travel, called "Where We've Been, Where We're Going, Why." The lessons were to be broadcast to millions of schoolchildren via closed-circuit