SPACE.com -- Teacher Barbara Morgan Assigned to 2003 Shuttle Flight

Barbara Morgan, Educator Mission Specialist.

In the Orbiter Processing Facility, 1998 astronaut candidates Barbara Morgan (left), Dr. Patricia Hilliard Robertson and Bjarni Tryggvason look at the hardware exhibits, such as the engine actuator on the table.
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	Teacher Barbara Morgan Assigned to 2003 Shuttle Flight By Kelly Young FLORIDA TODAY posted: 11:30 am ET 12 December 2002

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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - NASA assigned former teacher Barbara Morgan to a shuttle flight this morning. She will fly in Nov. 15, 2003 on STS-118, which will deliver the second to last truss segment to the International Space Station.

As part of her duties, Morgan will choreograph the three complicated spacewalks from inside the shuttle.

On CBS' "Early Show," Morgan said she hopes to bring that knowledge and experience back to share with teachers and students.

"I think it's an opportunity to demonstrate how education is such an important feature, that we can bring into the classroom this experience," NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe told CNN. "If you've never seen Barbara in a classroom, you're in for a real treat."

She was chosen to be a full-time astronaut in 1998. She will go through the same training that the rest of her crew has gone through. In 1986, teacher Christa McAuliffe died in the Challenger explosion. Morgan was her back-up and trained alongside McAuliffe.

"Everything that I learned from Christa and her crewmates on the Challenger crew have stuck with me," Morgan said. "Christa is and will always be our first teacher in space."

O'Keefe made the rounds with Morgan on the morning network shows.

"Scott, get ready," O'Keefe said to someone off camera before an interview, presumably Morgan's shuttle commander Scott Kelly. "This is not the last you'll see of this. You just thought that you'd have to worry about the mission."

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