Christa McAuliffe Vice President George H. W. Bush announced that she had been selected for the position. Another teacher, Barbara Morgan, served as her backup. According to Mark Travis of the "Concord Monitor", it was her manner that set her apart from the other candidates. NASA official Alan Ladwig said "she had an infectious enthusiasm", and NASA psychiatrist Terrence McGuire told "New Woman" magazine that "she was the most broad-based, best-balanced person of the 10." Later that year, she and Morgan each took a year-long leave of absence from teaching in order to train for a space shuttle mission in early 1986.
McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center artful and entertaining activities that explore astronomy, aviation, earth and space science. The McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center offers of interactive science and engineering exhibits, outdoor exhibits including a full-sized replica of a Mercury-Redstone rocket, a full-dome digital planetarium, an observatory, science store, café, portable digital planetarium and a full complement of on- and off-site educational programs. The McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center began as a stand-alone planetarium serving as the official State of New Hampshire memorial to Christa McAuliffe. Opening in June 1990 as the Christa McAuliffe Planetarium, in 2001 it became the official state memorial to Admiral Alan Shepard as well. In