Teacher In Space Barbara Morgan

August 10, 2007
The space shuttle Endeavor lifted off with Barbara Morgan. Many of you know the story of the Challenger Explosion with Christa as the Teacher-In-Space. The former Idaho elementary schoolteacher was Christa McAuliffe's backup for Challenger's tragic mission in 1986. She was invited by NASA into the astronaut corps 12 years later. The Columbia disaster further delayed her going on a mission to space. Well, she is now aboard the Space Station. Barbara has waited two decades for this trip into space. Kathy has waited too.
Kathy had a few opportunities to spend time with Barbara. They met in Hawaii when Kathy was chosen as an International Faculty member for Challenger Center of Space Science Education in 1992. They romped on the lava bed, froze atop Mauna Kea, intellectualized a space anthropological site, joined the fish and coral of the Pacific for a swim, constructed a communications section of Marsville with a super team of Hawaiian and Pacific Rim teachers, shopped at Hilo Hattes and discovered the sights of our 50th state from desert to rainforest, cattle plains to lava fields enjoying their daily ration of macadamia nuts and the list went on to end with the best of such an adventure-new found friendships. It was Barbara that presented her with her Challenger Center pin, a treasure Kathy past on to Astronaut Joe Allen via Pam Peterson years later.

Being one of the 11,000+ teachers from Pennsylvania who had applied to be the Teacher In Space and having followed that dream as an International Faculty member of Challenger Center for Space Education throughout her teaching career, and still excited and vocal about the USA getting more involved in space travel, she is proud that Barbara Morgan has kept the dream alive, the dream of a teacher going to space. Her spirit is in that shuttle and aboard the space station with Barbara. Reach for the stars!


Follow the mission http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts118/index.html

Completing the Mission After 21 Years
08.08.07
Editor's note: In 1986, Ed Campion was a NASA public affairs officer working on the Teacher in Space program. Now news chief at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, he sent this e-mail to friends offering his personal thoughts before the launch of STS-118. He graciously gave the NASA Web team permission to post it for all to read.

Aug. 7, 2007 Dear Friends: I just would like to talk two numbers: 7,861 and 1. Most of you are already familiar with my NASA career, but for those friends who have come into my life more recently, I will give a short background briefing. Way back in 1984, yours truly was a fresh-faced young public affairs officer assigned to the space agency's new Teacher-in-Space project. For the better part of a year, I basically spent night and day with the national selection process, the 10 finalists evaluation and finally the naming of Christa McAuliffe and Barbara Morgan as the prime and back-up Teacher in Space finalists. Through several more months of training and media activities, everything was driven towards the day that a teacher would fly on the space shuttle. On Jan. 28, 1986, Space Shuttle Challenger, with the 51-L crew aboard, launched at 11:38 a.m. It was my first launch and as the shuttle rose off the launch pad, it was the most awe-inspiring sight I had ever seen. All the long work hours that had been put in just seemed to disappear and the feeling was one of, "Wow, the dream has finally come true." And 73 seconds later, the dream became a nightmare. The plan had been for Christa to teach two live lessons from space. She was going to tell kids about what it was like to live and work aboard the space shuttle and why space exploration was important. Instead, the lesson taught that day was the frailty of human life and the horrible price that is sometimes paid in humankind's exploration efforts.

But that is enough about Jan. 28, 1986, and here is where those two numbers I mentioned earlier now come into play. It has been 7,861 days since the Challenger accident. Think about all the things you have done and have experienced in the last 21-plus years: the different jobs you've had, the people who have come into or gone out of your life, all the new places you have visited, things you have learned, etc. Now think about this: Barbara Morgan has been carrying the teacher-in-space banner that whole time. She has endured more media attention and public scrutiny than most politicians or celebrities have to bear and through it all she has stayed true to her beliefs. She could have made herself out to be a victim or tried to make money in some tell-all book or just walked away and tried to resume a quiet normal life but she believed in what the teacher-in-space concept could do. She recognized the potential the program had for inspiring youth she has carried that promise for the last 7,861 days. And now we are 1 day away from Barbara finally getting the opportunity to fly aboard the Space Shuttle. If things go as planned, Barbara and the STS-118 crew will launch aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour (the Shuttle that replaced Challenger) at 6:36 p.m. tomorrow evening. I'm down at the Kennedy Space Center press site and I'll be standing right where I was standing so many years ago. People have asked me if my being at KSC is for closure or just wanting to be part of the media support team for the 118 mission, and I'm sure those are elements are in play. I just know that deep down in my soul there is no place else I could be tomorrow. So depending on what you're doing on Wednesday night, turn on your television and watch an event that will hopefully remind you that there are still people like Barbara who can inspire all of us. Take care, Eduardo

Did you watch the launch? Are you following the mission?