Christa McAuliffe probable the O-rings had not provided a proper seal. Barbara Radding Morgan, her backup, became a professional astronaut in January 1998, and flew on Space Shuttle mission STS-118, to the International Space Station, on August 8, 2007, aboard "Endeavour", the orbiter that replaced "Challenger". McAuliffe was buried at Blossom Hill Cemetery in her hometown, Concord. She has since been honored at many events, including the Daytona 500 NASCAR race in 1986. The McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center in Concord and the Christa Corrigan McAuliffe Center for Education and Teaching Excellence at Framingham State University are named in her memory, as are the
Terry McAuliffe campaign and one of her superdelegates at the 2008 Democratic National Convention. In 2012, he was a visiting fellow at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. In addition to several faculty and student lectures, McAuliffe hosted a segment entitled "The Making of a Candidate: From Running Campaigns to Running on my Own." McAuliffe was an adviser at ZeniMax Media. On November 10, 2008, McAuliffe formed an exploratory committee aimed at the Virginia gubernatorial election in 2009. According to "The Washington Post", McAuliffe believed he would prevail "because he [could] campaign as a business leader who can bring jobs