Christa McAuliffe

If I can get some student interested in science, if I can show members of the general public what's going on up there in the space program, then my job's been done. ”

NASA was going to pick a public school teacher to go into space, observe and make a journal about the space flight, and I am a teacher who always dreamed of going up into space. ”

My job in space will be to observe and write a journal. I am also going to be teaching a class for students on earth about life in space and on the space shuttle and conducting experiments. ”

I can remember in early elementary school when the Russians launched the first satellite. There was still so much unknown about space. People thought Mars was probably populated. ”

I told them how excited I would be to go into space and how thrilled I was when Alan Shepard made his historic flight, and when John Kennedy announced on the news that the men had landed safely on the moon, and how jealous I was of those men. ”

I will go around the space shuttle and give a guided tour of the major areas and describe what is done in each area. This will be called The Ultimate Field Trip. ”

Space is going to be commonplace. ”

When I'm 60, maybe, I'll look at my pile of papers and wonder, What really happened that year? ”

We sat around one night and thought that people are going to look back and say, I can't imagine there was a lot of excitement about HER going up! ”

The Twilight Zone' wasn't around with the kids. They think going up in space is neat. Within their lifetime, there will be paying passengers on the shuttle. ”