Before Christa McAuliffe was an astronaut, she was a vibrant teacher in New England keen on showing her students how everyday people left extraordinary marks on U.S. history.
Nearly four decades later, a new documentary focuses on how she still inspires others and less on her fate aboard the space shuttle Challenger.
With a poster of Christa McAuliffe, NASA's first teacher in space, displayed on the wall, teacher Kimberly Bleier instructs her students Dec. 16 in one of classrooms where McAuliffe taught at Concord High School in Concord, N.H.
"Christa: From Ordinary to Extraordinary" from New Hampshire PBS explores her close relationship with the state and its capital, Concord, where she was picked from more than 11,000 applicants to be the nation's first teacher in space.
"You say 'Christa' in New Hampshire, everyone knows exactly who you're talking about," Gov. Chris Sununu says in the film. Its release on Thursday comes three months after a bronze statue of McAuliffe was unveiled at the Statehouse, on what would have been her 76th birthday.
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A crowd surrounds the newly-unveiled statue of Christa McAuliffe, NASA's first teacher in space, outside the Statehouse on Sept. 2 in Concord, N.H.
The documentary features interviews with community members, footage of scenes such as a Main Street parade for McAuliffe, and some of her comments — including her parting speech to Concord High School seniors in 1985. It reflects the pride and joy felt by residents then and now for an enthusiastic teacher who loved learning and telling stories.
McAuliffe was 37 when she died, one of the seven crew members aboard the Challenger when the space shuttle broke apart on live TV on Jan. 28, 1986. The documentary briefly touches on the tragedy.
"We all want to be remembered for who we were, what we cared about, what we loved, what we did, and not how we died," Jeanne Gerulskis, the recently retired executive director of the McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center, says in the film.
A selection of memorabilia related to Christa McAuliffe, NASA's first teacher in space, is displayed Dec. 16 at the McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center in Concord, N.H.
History through the eyes of ordinary people
McAuliffe taught social studies at Concord High School beginning in 1983. She created a course devoted to the history of American women that's still taught there today. People in the documentary said she wanted students to see the role that ordinary people, particularly women, can play in history.
McAuliffe saw herself as one of them. A lover of field trips, she looked forward to bringing back her thoughts and journal from the shuttle mission "like a woman on the Conestoga wagon pioneering the West," she said in an interview.
Holly Merrow, a former student of McAuliffe's in the women's history class, feels the documentary embodies her spirit of wanting to inspire children.
"We felt like we were going to space as well," Merrow, now a teacher in Maine, said about McAuliffe at a recent screening of the film.
Christa McAuliffe rides with her children Caroline and Scott past the Statehouse during a parade July 21, 1985, in Concord, N.H.
Educating future generations
The documentary also talks about the importance of telling children who McAuliffe was.
In New Hampshire, many children learn about government beginning in fourth grade. They visit the Statehouse. McAuliffe's statue stands near the entrance, a good starting point for a discussion. It's the first statue added to the grounds in more than a century, and the first woman.
At Concord High School, Kimberly Bleier teaches social studies in a room where McAuliffe once taught. In the film, she says she often reminds herself that "there's a lot of responsibility there" to ensure that what McAuliffe brought to the school, such as her love of hands-on learning, is still remembered and talked about.
Bleier currently teaches Street Law, a general introduction to the legal system that emphasizes criminal and juvenile law. McAuliffe taught that class, too.
Bleier was a sixth-grader when she watched the space shuttle launch on television. She recalled how devastating it was.
"I don't want to watch the shuttle blow up again," she said. "I want to watch her. I want to hear her."
Photos: Remembering the 1986 Challenger space shuttle disaster
This photo provided by NASA shows the crew of space shuttle Challenger mission 51L. All seven members of the crew were killed when the shuttle exploded during launch on Jan. 28, 1986. Front row from left are Michael J. Smith, Francis R. (Dick) Scobee and Ronald E. McNair. Back row from left are Ellison Onizuka, Christa McAuliffe, Gregory Jarvis, and Judith Resnik. (NASA via AP)
In this Jan. 28, 1986, picture, the space shuttle Challenger lifts off from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., shortly before it exploded with a crew of seven aboard. (AP Photo/Thom Baur)
In this Jan. 28, 1986, file photo, the space shuttle Challenger explodes shortly after lifting off from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. (AP Photo/Bruce Weaver, File)
In this Jan. 28, 1986, file picture, two unidentified spectators at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., react after they witnessed the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger. (AP Photo/File)
High school teacher Christa McAuliffe greets family and friends at Manchester Airport in New Hampshire on July 20, 1985, after she was announced as the first citizen to go up in space aboard the space shuttle. She was one of the seven crew members killed when the shuttle Challenger exploded during launch on Jan. 28, 1986. (AP Photo/Jim Cole)
Space shuttle mission 51-L explodes after liftoff from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, Jan. 28, 1986, with a crew of seven aboard. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)
In this Jan. 27, 1986, file picture, the crew members of space shuttle Challenger flight 51-L leave their quarters for the launch pad at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. From foreground are commander Francis Scobee, Mission Spl. Judith Resnik, Mission Spl. Ronald McNair, Payload Spl. Gregory Jarvis, Mission Spl. Ellison Onizuka, teacher Christa McAuliffe and pilot Michael Smith. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)
Four crew members of the space shuttle Challenger walk from their quarters at Kennedy Space Center, Fla., en route to the launch pad Jan. 28, 1986. Challenger exploded moments into the launch, killing all seven of the crew, including, from front: pilot Mike Smith, school teacher Christa McAuliffe, mission specialist Ellison Onizuka and payload specialist Gregory Jarvis. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)
The space shuttle orbiter Challenger is destroyed by an explosion after it lifted off from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, Jan. 28, 1986. (AP photo/Steve Helber)
The American flag in the press site at the Kennedy Space Center, Fla., flies at half-mast, Tuesday, Jan. 28, 1986, following the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger. NASA said the crew of seven aboard the craft died in the explosion. Launch pad B is shown under the flag. (AP Photo/Jim Cole)
Rev. Daniel Messier, right, dries the tears of Concord, New Hampshire, sixth-grader Tanya Lee at a memorial service for teacher Christa McAuliffe at St. John's Catholic Church in Concord, Jan. 29, 1986. McAuliffe died in the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger. (AP Photo/Toby Talbot)
This file picture shows a drawing made on Jan. 31, 1986, by a first grade student whose class at the Our Lady of Lourdes School in Melbourne, Fla., was asked to draw what they thought happened to the space shuttle Challenger and the people aboard. (AP Photo/Thom Baur)
An unidentified student bows his head as he pauses next to an impromptu memorial set up outside Concord, New Hampshire, High School, Friday, Feb. 1, 1986, after a private service was conducted at the school for teacher Christa McAuliffe, who died in the Challenger explosion. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)
The remains of one of the crew of the space shuttle Challenger are carried past an honor guard on the tarmac at Dover Air Force Base in Dover, Del., on April 29, 1986. The remains of the seven astronauts killed in the shuttle explosion were brought to the base to be prepared for burial. (AP Photo/Amy Sancetta)
NASA employees Estelle Coleman, left, and Bettye McNaughton, right, wipe tears from their eyes while observing a 73-second period of silence exactly one year after the Challenger astronauts perished 73 seconds into their flight. Some 14,000 workers came to a standstill at the space center to honor the Challenger disaster anniversary, Wednesday, Jan. 28, 1987. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)
In this Jan. 31, 1986, file photo, Coast Guardsmen prepare to hoist the fulcrum of one of the space shuttle Challenger's solid rocket boosters onto the deck of U.S. Coast Guard cutter Dallas during salvage operations off the Florida coast. The Challenger exploded shortly after takeoff. (AP Photo/File)
In this 1986 file photo, workers transport debris from the space shuttle Challenger, recovered after the Jan. 28, 1986, explosion, to a storage site at the Canaveral Air Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Fla. (AP Photo/James Neihouse)
In this Jan. 28, 1986, file photo the space shuttle Challenger is destroyed by an explosion shortly after it lifted off from Kennedy Space Center, Fla., killing all seven crew members. (AP Photo/Steve Helber, File)
In this Jan. 28, 2011, file photo, June Scobee Rodgers, widow of Dick Scobee, commander of space shuttle Challenger, speaks in front of the Space Mirror Memorial during a remembrance ceremony to mark the 25th anniversary of space shuttle Challenger disaster at the Kennedy Space Center visitor complex in Cape Canaveral, Fla. On the memorial behind her are the names of the astronauts who died aboard Challenger. (AP Photo/John Raoux)
In this 1986 file photo, members of the Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident walk past the solid rocket boosters and the external tank of a shuttle being fitted in the Vehicle Assembly building at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. (AP Photo/Pool, File)
Parishioners stand in prayer during Mass on Feb. 2, 1986, at St. John's Church in Concord, New Hampshire, the hometown of Christa McAuliffe, who was killed in the Challenger space shuttle explosion. A photo of McAuliffe adorns the cover of the church service program. (AP Photo/Toby Talbot)
Linda Poole of Omaha, Neb., visits a memorial for the space shuttle Challenger at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va., on Feb. 2, 2003. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
