Teacher: Space 'Takes ... Getting Used To'
Barbara Morgan says she initially "felt like I was upside down the whole time."
Aug. 9, 2007 — -- Barbara Morgan, the former teacher turned astronaut, grinned from ear to ear during her first video downlink on board the space shuttle Endeavour.
She said she did have a little trouble her first day in space.
"When you first get into orbit, it takes a little getting used to," she said. "I was discombobulated. All day yesterday, even through I kept my head up, I felt like I was upside down the whole time."
She also said it's easy to lose things in space.
"You set something aside," she said, "and even with Velcro, within 30 seconds it is gone and you have no idea where it is."
Morgan's hair floated around her face, and around her neck her wedding ring and another medallion were visible on a chain floating in zero gravity.
Morgan spent her first full day in space using her robotics training to help inspect the space shuttle Endeavour's heat shield. The inspection is a critical aspect of every mission since the Columbia accident because it lets flight controllers see if the shuttle's fragile heat shield was damaged during liftoff.
NASA is concerned because video replays of the launch show foam coming off the external tank at 24 seconds, 58 seconds, and 173 seconds into the launch of the space shuttle Endeavour.
John Shannon, who heads the mission management team, which oversees the current shuttle mission, said his team is examining the video of the foam hits to determine if it is a problem. He said an initial look at Endeavour showed no obvious damage. He is most concerned about the foam that came off the shuttle 58 seconds into the launch, which appeared to have struck the starboard wing of Endeavour, but the pieces were so small he doesn't believe the debris was a threat.
"The middle one, the picture was quite underwhelming and we do have good views in those areas," he said. "Whether it caused damage, we will find out after the rendezvous pitch maneuver Friday."
Morgan has garnered much of the attention on this flight to the International Space Station. She is a former teacher who trained as a backup for the first teacher in space, Christa McAuliffe, who died in the Challenger accident in 1986. She spent 21 years waiting for her turn to fly into space.
