Teacher-turned-astronaut
Barbara Morgan received a welcome call of support from First Lady Laura Bush
Tuesday, one day before she and six crewmates launch into orbit aboard NASA's
space shuttle Endeavour.
"Mrs.
Bush expressed congratulations from one schoolteacher to another and noted that
she and the President appreciate Ms. Morgan's commitment to America's space
program, to teaching, and to students," White House officials said of the First
Lady's call in a statement.
Morgan and
her six STS-118 crewmates are set to
launch Wednesday at 6:36 p.m. EDT (2236 GMT) from Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy
Space Center in Florida to begin Endeavour's construction mission to the
International Space Station (ISS).
During the
Endeavour's STS-118 mission, Morgan will oversee the transfer of some 5,000
pounds (2,267 kilograms) of cargo between the shuttle and the ISS. She will
also help control Endeavour's robotic arm during orbiter heat shield
inspections and spacewalks to install spare parts and a new starboard
piece of the space station's main truss, mission managers have said.
She also
plans to hold at least one, and possibly as many as three, interactive
educational events with schools on Earth via a video link, and is toting millions
of basil seeds and a plant growth chamber to space with her in hopes of
encouraging students to think about how future astronauts will grow food on
missions to the moon and Mars.
Morgan's
planned launch comes 22 years after she was first selected by NASA to serve
as the backup Teacher in Space to New Hampshire high school teacher Christa
McAuliffe in 1985. Then-Vice President George H.W. Bush announced the selection
of McAuliffe and Morgan after a nation-wide search among U.S. educators.
"Being
able to train with Christa and the Challenger crew was such a lucky, wonderful
thing to get to do," Morgan said in a NASA interview. "I learned so
much from them."
But McAuliffe's
spaceflight ended in tragedy on Jan. 28, 1986, when the New Hampshire teacher
and six NASA astronauts were killed just after launch when their space
shuttle Challenger broke apart. Morgan, a former McCall, Idaho
schoolteacher, served as NASA's Teacher in Space Designee following the
Challenger accident, and later returned to her classroom. She also worked
alongside NASA's Education Office and served on the National Science
Foundation's Federal Task Force for Women and Minorities in Science and
Engineering.
"Helping
with that was a big eye-opener for me," Morgan said, adding that the task
force highlighted the need to spur students to pursue the science and
engineering fields. "Serving on that task force, I think, was one of the
highlights."
In 1998,
NASA named Morgan as its first professional Educator Astronaut, a designation
that melds the capabilities of a teacher with the spaceflight training of a mission
specialist. Morgan later trained to serve as a spacecraft communicator, or
CAPCOM, to speak with astronauts in orbit, and learned to wield the space shuttle's
robotic arm before receiving her STS-118 assignment in 2002. NASA's 2003
Columbia accident also delayed the planned spaceflight.
In her
phone call to Morgan this morning, the First Lady noted that "Americans-and
lots of excited teachers and students-will be watching the mission with a lot
of pride," White House officials said.
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