“What are we doing here? We're reaching for the stars.”
"Christa McAuliffe 1948-1986" in TIME magazine (10 February 1986) http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,960597,00.html
Sharon Christa McAuliffe was an American teacher and astronaut from Concord, New Hampshire, and one of the seven crew members killed in the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.
She received her bachelor's degree in education and history from Framingham State College in 1970 and also a master's degree in education, supervision and administration from Bowie State University in 1978. She took a teaching position as a social studies teacher at Concord High School in New Hampshire in 1983.
In 1985, she was selected from more than 11,000 applicants to participate in the NASA Teacher in Space Project and was scheduled to become the first teacher in space. As a member of mission STS-51-L, she was planning to conduct experiments and teach two lessons from Space Shuttle Challenger. On January 28, 1986, the shuttle broke apart 73 seconds after launch. After her death, schools and scholarships were named in her honor, and in 2004 she was posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor.
Wikipedia
“What are we doing here? We're reaching for the stars.”
"Christa McAuliffe 1948-1986" in TIME magazine (10 February 1986) http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,960597,00.html
“I have a vision of the world as a global village, a world without boundaries.”
Context: I have a vision of the world as a global village, a world without boundaries. Imagine a history teacher making history!
Christa McAuliffe 1948-1986 Framingham State College - Henry Whittemore Library http://www.framingham.edu/henry-whittemore-library/curriculum-library-archives-and-special-collections/christa-mcauliffe.html
“Reach for it, you know. Go push yourself as far as you can.”
Tanscript - CNN Presents: CHRISTA MCAULIFFE REACH FOR THE STARS (22 January 2006 http://edition.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0601/22/cp.01.html
“I Touch the Future — I Teach.”
As quoted in "I Touch the Future —" : The story of Christa McAuliffe (1985) by Robert T. Hohler, p. 155; this was on a t-shrit which she brought on her shuttle baggage, but the expression might not have originated with her.
(RESPONSE) Though the expression might not have originated by Christa, she endorsed it and repeated it as captured on a YouTube video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZfKrXp-ghM , starting at the 7:39 mark. (Christa was speaking before various media microphones, including one microphone belonging to WJYY radio, a Concord, NH, station where Christa lived.) Also, in the biography of Christa by her mother, Grace Corrigan, the expression is attributed to Christa by former student (1975), Roger Chapan, who quoted Christa as saying: “I teach; I touch the future.” (See A Journal for Christa: Christa McAuliffe, Teacher in Space by Grace George Corrigan, 1993, ISBN 0-8032-1459-6, page 162) Regardless of who originated the expression (and it may very well have been Christa), it was Christa McAuliffe who popularized it and indelibly etched it into the minds of everyone in the world with her tragic passing.
Disputed
“No teacher has ever been better prepared to teach a lesson.”
As quoted in American Heroes of Exploration and Flight (1996) by Anne E. Schraff, p. 102
“May your future be limited only by your dreams!”
As quoted in "New Hampshire Town Reeling From Shock, Grief" by Bob Drogin in The Los Angeles Times (30 Januray 1986)