Jan. 26, 2007 — The elementary school students Barbara Morgan once taught back in
McCall, Idaho, have long since grown up, many with children of their
own. Their teacher, however, is about to make good on a lesson
promised more than 20 years ago.
Back in 1986, NASA flew a school teacher on space shuttle Challenger in
hopes of exposing youngsters to the wonders of space. The flight went
horribly wrong, killing teacher Christa McAuliffe and her six
crewmates seconds after liftoff on Jan. 28, 1986.
It was turning point for Morgan, who had trained with the crew as
McAuliffe's backup.
"Kids were watching to see what the adults do in a terrible, terrible
situation," Morgan said. "What I thought was really important for
kids to see is that we figure out what's wrong, we fix it, and we
move on, and we keep the future open for our young people.
"I feel that's really important today. I'll feel that's important
forever," she said.
In the spotlight herself, Morgan decided she would not abandon the
space program and pledged to continue McAuliffe's work. It's taken
far longer than she imagined, but this year Morgan, now 55 and a
full-fledged astronaut, is preparing for launch.
"I'm actually excited about going up and doing the work. We've been
training really hard. There's been so much to learn to be able to do
our jobs well," she said.
NASA cancelled the Teacher in Space program, and a companion project
to fly a journalist on the shuttle after the Challenger disaster.
Morgan returned to teaching in the classroom, but she never gave up hope that NASA might
someday change its position about flying civilians in space.
