'May your future be limited only by your dreams.'

Aboard Challenger, Christa McAuliffe would have been the first teacher in space

The social studies teacher from Concord, New Hampshire, was selected from over 11,000 applicants to NASA's Teacher in Space program. Had the disaster not ended the mission, McAuliffe planned to teach lessons and conduct microgravity experiments in space.

The Teacher in Space program was launched in 1984 to highlight spaceflight in US classrooms

Announced by President Ronald Reagan, the program drew more than 11,000 teacher applicants nationwide. Christa McAuliffe was selected to fly on STS-51L, with plans to teach live lessons from orbit before the Challenger disaster ended the mission.

Watch the lessons Christa McAuliffe was supposed to teach aboard Challenger

After the Challenger disaster prevented McAuliffe from teaching in orbit, educators-turned-astronauts Joe Acaba and Ricky Arnold filmed her planned science demonstrations aboard the International Space Station during the 2017-18 school year.

'We are more fulfilled when we are involved in something bigger than ourselves.'

- Astronaut John Glenn (1921–2016)

'I don't know what you can say about a day when you see four beautiful sunsets.'

- Astronaut John Glenn (1921–2016)

The Challenger disaster ended NASA's plan to fly ordinary Americans in space

The explosion of the Challenger halted NASA's civilian spaceflight ambitions for decades, including plans to send teachers, journalists, artists, and other nonastronauts into orbit—an effort aimed at building public support that quietly disappeared after the 1986 disaster.

Watch the Challenger disaster, which killed all seven astronauts aboard, unfold live.

Mission specialist Ronald McNair was the second African American to fly in space

Growing up in Lake City, South Carolina, McNair described deep self-motivation as key to overcoming struggles in mathematics, having come from a family with no one having a background in mathematics or science. He credited his own curiosity and discipline developed through athletics—especially karate—with helping him build resilience.

'The arts and sciences are avatars of human creativity. It's our attempt to influence things, the universe internal to ourselves and external to us.'

- Mae Jemison (1956-present), the first Black woman in space

A quote by Whitney Houston

"I believe that children are our future. Teach them well and let them lead the way. Show them all the beauty they possess inside."

'One child, one teacher, one book, one pen can change the world'

- Activist and author Malala Yousafzai (1997-present)

About 2.5 million American students watched the Challenger disaster live

Because of the publicity of the Teacher in Space program, millions of students viewed Challenger's liftoff in school classrooms—turning the explosion into a shared national traumatic experience marked by shock, silence, and grief.

'Through this unique means, I convey to you and all mankind, America’s wish for peace on Earth and goodwill to men everywhere.'

- President Dwight Eisenhower (1890-1969) sending a message from space

'Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world.'

- Albert Einstein

A quote from Sally Ride

“Three Secrets to Success: Be willing to learn new things. Be able to assimilate new information quickly. Be able to get along with and work with other people.”

Space tourism opportunities have been explored since the end of the Apollo era

In the 1970s, Rockwell International, a NASA contractor, and others investigated manufacturing passenger modules that could fit into the Space Shuttle's payload bay. NASA also opened spaceflights to nongovernment professionals, but many such programs were ended after the Challenger disaster, which killed the first Teacher in Space participant.

'Try to be a rainbow in someone's cloud.'

- Maya Angelou

'Every day sees humanity more victorious in the struggle with space and time.'

- Radio inventor Guglielmo Marconi

'There are no passengers on Spaceship Earth. We are all crew.'

- Philosopher Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980)

A quote by Magic Johnson

"Celebrate the life you had, not the life you could've had."

'Fear of life closes off more opportunities for us than fear of death ever does.'

- Actress Agnes Moorehead (1900–1974)

'Don’t try to be young. Just open your mind. Stay interested in stuff. There are so many things I won’t live long enough to find out about, but I’m still curious about them.'

- Actress Betty White (1922-2021)

'Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.'

- Bobby Kennedy

'On the return trip home, gazing through 240,000 miles of space toward the stars and the planet from which I had come, I suddenly experienced the universe as intelligent, loving, harmonious..'

-Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell, in "The Way of the Explorer"

'Sometimes opportunities float right past your nose. Work hard, apply yourself, and be ready. When an opportunity comes you can grab it.'

- Actress Julie Andrews (1935 - present)

'When you're climbing Mount Everest, nothing is easy. You just take one step at a time, never look back and always keep your eyes glued to the top.'

- Author Jacqueline Susann (1918-1974)

'Few will have the greatness to bend history itself, but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation.'

- Senator Robert F. Kennedy (1925–1968)

'The more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us, the less taste we shall have for destruction.'

- Marine biologist and environmentalist Rachel Carson (1907-1964)

Mae Jemison, the first Black woman in space

Astronaut Mae Jemison describes her journey from space-loving girl in Chicago to astronaut looking down on Chicago and thinking about her younger self in this two-minute video. Physician, engineer, educator, entrepreneur and the first woman of color in the world to go into space, Dr. Jemison was a NASA astronaut for six years.

1928: A quote from Amelia Earhart

"Ours is the commencement of a flying age, and I am happy to have popped into existence at a period so interesting."

'The best way to make a dream come true is to wake up.'

- Fashion icon Anna Wintour (1949 – present)

A quote by Lauren Bacall

"Imagination is the highest kite one can fly."

'You shouldn't dream your film, you should make it!'

- Filmmaker Steven Spielberg (1946-present)

'Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.'

- Inventor Thomas Edison (1847 - 1931)

'One man can make a difference and every man should try.'

- Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (1929-1994)

A quote by Howard Hughes

"Do the impossible, because almost everyone has told me my ideas are merely fantasies."

Judith Resnik was the second American woman to fly in space

A PhD in electrical engineering, Judith "Judy" Resnik flew aboard Space Shuttle Discovery in 1984, becoming the second American woman in space, and later served as a mission specialist on Challenger's STS-51L mission.

'Keep working on a plan. Make no little plans. Make the biggest one you can think of, and spend the rest of your life carrying it out.'

- President Harry Truman (1884-1972)

Ellison Onizuka was the first Asian American in space

A member of the 1986 Challenger mission crew, Onizuka was also the first Hawaiian in space, having been one of 35 people selected from a pool of 8,000 applicants for astronaut training in 1978.

A Quote by Sandra Day O'Connor

"Do the best you can in every task, no matter how unimportant it may seem at the time."

Lego's Women of NASA set honors four NASA pioneers: computer scientist Margaret Hamilton, astronaut Sally Ride, astronaut Mae Jemison, and astronomer Nancy Grace Roman.

'(Kids) don't remember what you try to teach them. They remember what you are.'

- "Muppets" creator Jim Henson (1936-1990)

'Most of man's problems upon this planet, in the long history of the race, have been met and solved either partially or as a whole by experiment based on common sense and carried out with courage.'

-Frances Perkins (1880-1965), first female member of US Cabinet

'I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.'

- Author Douglas Adams (1952-2001)

The 'maiden of maiden voyages' who taught the world how to fly

In 1939, Clara Adams set the world record for the fastest person to circle the globe via commercial airliner, though she was a passenger and not a pilot. This article explores the impact of Adams' journey on the commercial flight industry. During...

'The true measure of all our actions is how long the good in them lasts.'

- Queen Elizabeth II (1926-2022)

'Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul—and sings the tunes without the words—and never stops at all.'

- Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)

'Without goals, training has no direction.'

- Twelve-time Olympic swimming medalist Natalie Coughlin (1982-present)

Science communicator Bill Nye (1955 - ) on science

"Science is the key to our future, and if you don’t believe in science, then you’re holding everybody back."

NASA's big dream that never came to life

Conceived in the early 1960s, the Sea Dragon was an audacious ocean-launched rocket design that would have dwarfed the Saturn V in both scale and payload—but its extreme engineering challenges kept it firmly on the drawing board.