Photo: Photo: Chaiel Schaffel
FRAMINGHAM, Mass. (WBZ NewsRadio) — At Framingham State University, there is a newly renovated space exploration center to honor a woman who once dreamed of space and its possibilities. The center honors Framingham State alumna Christa McAuliffe. McAuliffe, a schoolteacher in Concord, N.H., was selected by NASA in 1985 as the first teacher to orbit into space and teach lessons from the world above. She tragically died when the Space Shuttle Challenger was destroyed along with her six crewmembers on January 28, 1986, off the coast of Florida.
The center is focused on educating kids on space and space exploration.
The $8 million facelift for the McAuliffe Center was meant to bring it into the modern era. WBZ’s Chaiel Schaffel spoke to the center’s Planetarium and Media Technology Manager Ross Barros-Smith about the importance of teaching space to today’s generation.
Photo: Photo: Chaiel Schaffel
“We don’t want students coming in here to feel like they’re involved in some retrospective celebration of things we’ve already done”, said Smith.
Before the renovation, Smith had said that the center had looked more like the Apollo era and now, it is more geared toward humanities great exploits in the world unknown, like landing on Mars.
The Christa McAuliffe Center first opened in 1994.
WBZ NewsRadio's Chaiel Schaffel (@CSchaffelWBZ) reports
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