CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) _ Barbara Morgan, the teacher-astronaut tapped to fly in space in 2004, said Tuesday she will be carrying on Christa McAuliffe's mission and dream.
Morgan was McAuliffe's backup for NASA's 1986 Challenger mission that ended tragically 73 seconds after liftoff.
``It's not that I'll be fulfilling Christa's mission, but helping carry it on,'' Morgan told reporters from Houston before heading over to Mission Control to help coordinate the spacewalk outside the international space station.
Morgan said she often is asked whether she will be fulfilling McAuliffe's classroom-in-space mission, ``and I have to disagree with that because the job of education is never fulfilled.''
``Every year you have a new group of students. You have a new generation coming. So there's no end point to education, just like there's no end point to the universe and the kinds of things that NASA is doing to try to explore that universe,'' she said.
She added: ``I just see this, for me personally, as one very lucky step in what I hope will be going on forever and ever and ever and growing and growing and growing.''
NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe announced Friday that Morgan will fly to the international space station sometime in 2004, after the preliminary version of the outpost is completed. He took part in Tuesday's press conference, calling Morgan ``a treasure to this agency.''
Morgan, 50, a former third-grade teacher in McCall, Idaho, said she does not know whether she will be assigned to a short space shuttle flight or a much longer space station mission.
By then, 19 years will have passed from the time Morgan and McAuliffe were selected for NASA's teacher-in-space program. Back then, the space agency required just months of training for the two teachers. Now, Morgan and future space educators are required to go through full-fledged astronaut training that lasts one to two years.
``I've never felt I've ever waited,'' Morgan said. ``I've worked, and that's what we teachers do in our classrooms every day and that's what the NASA astronauts do every single day. They work and work and work. When the day finally arrives, it finally arrives.''
Morgan said she's been so busy with the ongoing space shuttle and space station mission that she has not had time to talk with McAuliffe's mother, Grace Corrigan. NASA officials informed Corrigan of their plan to renew focus on teaching in space and, by doing so, hopefully inspire youngsters.
``She's excited and happy and I'm glad for that. I know she's calling my mom and saying, 'Don't let her do it,''' Morgan said with a smile.
McAuliffe was one of seven astronauts killed in the Challenger explosion. Morgan was close friends with them all.
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