This is an update to a story first posted at 1:45 p.m. EST.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- NASA's sole educator astronaut, Barbara Morgan, soon will have company in the office.

Space agency officials on Tuesday unveiled plans to hire three to six additional educator astronauts from the ranks of the nation's teachers.

Details of the $2 million project were announced by NASA chief Sean O'Keefe during an assembly at Hardy Middle School in Washington, D.C.

Calling it a "national process for recruiting a very special cadre of NASA astronauts," O'Keefe said NASA was looking for teachers willing to become full-time astronauts and work to inspire students to pursue careers in math and science.

"What better way to convey the excitement of space exploration than to entrust the mission to teachers," O'Keefe said.

Here's how the selection process will work:

Qualified teachers can apply -- or anyone can nominate a teacher -- by visiting a NASA web site before April 30 at http://edspace.nasa.gov, or calling toll-free 877-332-7876 for more information.

To qualify a teacher must be a certified K-12 educator with a minimum of three years of in-classroom teaching experience during the past four years. They must hold a bachelor's degree in Physical Science, Biological Science, Engineering, Mathematics or Education, with a concentration in one of the areas already mentioned; and be able to pass a NASA Class 2 physical. Additional application requirements can be found at the NASA web site.

From the expected thousands of initial applicants, NASA and education officials will select and pass on to the astronaut selection committee some 200-300 potential candidates.

From that smaller list, officials say between 30 and 60 potential educator astronaut candidates will be invited to come to the Johnson Space Center in Houston for one-week interviews in August, September and October.

NASA officials will make their selections and invite the new astronauts to join the class of 2004 before the end of this year, with training to begin during 2004.

The educator astronaut candidates will then have to complete a year of basic training before they are considered "real" astronauts and become available for eventual assignment to a flight.

"We would like to fly them quickly," NASA chief astronaut Kent Rominger said, with the first one of that group likely flying in late 2005 or early 2006, with probably one teacher per year after that.

According to the job announcement, the salary range is $50,974 to $94,448.

The Educator Astronaut program is a 21st century version of NASA's original Teacher in Space program of the 1980s in which Christa McAuliffe was selected as NASA's first teacher/astronaut during 1985, with Morgan as her backup.

The Jan. 28, 1986 Challenger disaster put that program on hold for more than 15 years while many ground-based education initiatives inspired by Challenger began. In 1998, Morgan was invited to join the astronaut office as the agency's first educator astronaut and started full-time training for a mission.

Morgan is assigned to the crew of STS-118 now targeted to launch Nov. 13. The 11-day mission is to fly to the International Space Station to continue its assembly.

Morgan said she is looking forward to the chance to teach from space.

"Ten months from now I'm going to fly out of this world," Morgan said. "I'm very proud to be a teacher. I'm very happy to be one of many people helping to continue the mission of the Challenger crew and our teacher in space, Christa McAuliffe."

Morgan already knows what she's going to tell students when she arrives in orbit: "Come on up. We want you to follow us, we want you to lead us. We want you to show us the way."