August 12, 2007
Teacher Reaches to stars,
21 Years After Challenger Disaster
Washington
Barbara Morgan taught math and reading in the Rocky Mountains, then
English and science in the Andes but she wanted to go to even
greater heights. The 55-year-old Californian has now taken her
classroom to space.
Morgan took off last week as part of the space shuttle Endeavour's
seven-member crew.
Even before the astronaut has had the chance to teach for students
via satellite, she gave a lesson in perseverance.
Morgan waited 22 years to reach space. She was the second teacher
chosen to participate in the space programme and watched as the
space shuttle Challenger exploded on takeoff in 1986. She trained as
the substitute for Christa McAuliffe, the teacher who died along
with six NASA astronauts.
Morgan was also McAuliffe's friend and colleague. The two had
trained together and pictures show the brown-haired women smiling in
their light blue NASA uniforms. They even worked together to prepare
the lessons that were to be taught from space aboard the Challenger.
"It still feels like just yesterday," Morgan said in an interview
released by NASA. "Those memories are still there with me."
A second, horrible memory also stays with Morgan of the explosion of
the space shuttle Columbia on re-entry in 2003. She was supposed to
travel to the ISS aboard a shuttle flight later that same year, but
her ticket to space was once again put on hold.
The heavens have always had an allure for Morgan. As a child, she
spent countless hours with a telescope, a Christmas gift from her
father.
Later she studied biology and became a teacher, first in Montana and
later in Ecuador. In August 1984, NASA started its Teacher in Space
project to help attract students to science and space flight.
Morgan, then 33, applied for the programme, writing, "I want to get
some stardust on me."
Of nearly 1,100 applicants, she was number two behind McAuliffe.
They trained together in Houston and rented apartments near each
other, jogging together each morning and dining together in the
evenings.
After the Challenger was lost, Morgan was still to be the next
teacher in space, but no date was set. She returned to her teaching
career but continued to speak to teachers groups on behalf of the US
space agency.
In 1998, NASA again tapped Morgan for a mission. The training was to
take two years and she would then work in ground control in Houston.
After the Columbia tragedy, shuttle flights were delayed again, but
the mother of two boys continued to wait.
Because her tasks are the same as other astronauts, she has little
time to work with students from space. Only one hour is set-aside
for a question and answer session. Her main teaching sessions will
take place once she returns to Earth.
While the Endeavour is docked to the ISS, Morgan will operate the
shuttle's robotic arm during the installation of a solar panel.
Morgan sees no distinction between her roles as astronaut and
teacher.
"To me space exploration is all about open-ended, never-ending
opportunities for our young people," she said. "That is what
teaching is all about, too. There are no boundaries. The
opportunities are there. You have just to wish to seize them."
She says her friend, McAuliffe, will always be America's first
teacher in space.
Even if she completes the mission that McAuliffe started, Morgan
said: "It's not a kind of closure. It's a continuation."
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