Teacher to Fly in Space, Finally

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.

Her fate hinged on former astronaut John Glenn, one of the seven original astronauts selected for the Mercury program. Glenn, the first American to orbit Earth, later became a senator and upon his retirement began petitioning NASA to let him fly again.

Couched in a program for geriatrics research that has never been followed up, Glenn's flight was approved, with NASA positing that Glenn's former astronaut status made him exempt from the ban on civilian space travel.

For Morgan, whom many thought an equal, if not more deserving candidate, there was an invitation to join the astronaut corps for full training as a mission specialist and a chance to fly on the shuttle as the first so-called Educator-Astronaut.

"Both the 'Educator-Astronaut' and the 'Teacher in Space' are teachers," Morgan said. "They experience space, and then they share that experience through a teacher's perspective and through the eyes, the ears, the hearts, the minds of teachers."

If there was any question about what takes priority at NASA these days, consider the timing of Morgan's flight: she and her crewmates are slated for launch at the end of June, while most schools are in summer recess.

Morgan will spend her time in orbit operating the shuttle and the International Space Station's robot arms while her crewmates conduct spacewalks to outfit the station with its last set of solar arrays.

There will be some public affairs events with students at a space education center, but Morgan's schedule is mostly brimming with the day-to-day tasks of living and working in space.

That suits Morgan just fine.

"I also hope (kids) see an ordinary person doing the things that they can be doing," she said. "It's all about learning and exploring, and we want them to come with us."