CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) --
Teacher-turned-astronaut Barbara Morgan and her crew mates arrived in Florida
on Monday for a few days of dress rehearsal in preparation for next month's
launch of space shuttle Endeavour.
Bad weather forced the seven
astronauts to arrive in a jet normally used for simulating shuttle landings
rather than the smaller training jets regularly used to fly the crew from
Houston to Kennedy Space Center.
"Hopefully in three weeks,
we'll have better weather to fly down here," Scott Kelly, Endeavour's
commander, said after landing.
The launch is set for
Aug. 7.
During their three days in
Florida, the Endeavour crew will be briefed on safety equipment, drive a tank
used during an escape from the launch pad and make shuttle landing simulation
runs. The preparations will culminate with a practice launch countdown on
Thursday, when the astronauts don their orange spacesuits and climb into the
shuttle.
Morgan has been waiting
two decades for the chance to go to space. She beamed with a wide smile
after landing, and exchanged hugs with Johnson Space Center workers who came to
Florida for the dress rehearsal.
"Thanks for coming out and
seeing us," Morgan told reporters.
Morgan was picked in 1985
to be Christa McAuliffe's backup in the teacher in space program. McAuliffe and
six astronauts were killed when the space
shuttle Challenger broke apart shortly after liftoff in 1986, and Morgan
returned to teaching in Idaho. In 1998, she was selected as a full-fledged
astronaut.
On her first mission, the
55-year-old Morgan will operate the shuttle's robotic arm, coordinate the
transfer of cargo and talk from space to students at three schools, if the mission
is extended as expected from 11 to 14 days.
The mission will be the
first flight in almost five years for Endeavour, which underwent extensive
refurbishment. During
the mission, Endeavour's crew will deliver a new truss segment to the
international space station, fix a gyroscope which controls the outpost's
orientation and go on as many as four spacewalks.
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