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
3352 McAuliffe months (941 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.37 and an inclination of 5° with respect to the ecliptic. It has an "Earth minimum orbital intersection distance" of , which translates into 79.5 lunar distances. Due to its eccentric orbit, "McAuliffe" is also a Mars-crosser. As no precoveries were taken, and no prior identifications were made, the body's observation arc begins with its official discovery observation at Anderson Mesa in 1981. In the SMASS taxonomy, "McAuliffe" is a rare A-type asteroid, meaning that it is rich in olivine. In addition, the large-scale survey conducted by PanSTARRS also classified as