More Than 20 Years Later, Teacher-Astronaut Takes Off

Aug. 7, 2007 — -- "I want to go on the space shuttle; I want to get some stardust," Barbara Morgan wrote on her application to NASA in 1985 when she dreamed of becoming an astronaut.

It's taken more than two decades, but she's about to get her chance.

Morgan answered NASA's call inviting teachers to apply to fly on a space shuttle and became Christa McAuliffe's back-up on STS 51L -- the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger mission.

She trained with McAuliffe and was at the Kennedy Space Center in 1986 when an explosion, 73 seconds into the launch, destroyed Challenger, killing McAuliffe and the other six members of the crew.

Morgan's husband, Clay Morgan, remembers the day vividly.

"At the time of the accident, the moment of the accident, she was in front of some microphones. She was supposed to watch the launch. This was outdoors at the viewing site, and after the launch she was supposed to turn around and take questions from the press," he said.

Instead, they went to the crew quarters to help comfort the families of the Challenger astronauts.

Morgan returned to teaching in Idaho. She said it was critical for her to help her students work through the tragedy.

"It was very important that our kids see adults in a bad situation don't give up, that they work hard to figure out what in the heck went wrong. What are we going to do about it, how we can fix it," she said.

But still, she wondered if she would ever get a chance to fly into space after NASA recovered from the Challenger accident.

"NASA had asked me would I continue on and help carry forward the work, and would I fly?" Barbara Morgan said. "I thought about that, and I wanted to do the right thing, and I believe I did do the right thing."

The goal for flying a teacher in space was simple: If regular people like teachers could go to space, they would come back to Earth to share the wonder and joy of space flight with students around the world and ignite interest in science and engineering.

In 1998, NASA announced Morgan had again been selected as an astronaut, and she began training for STS 118, a mission on board the Space Shuttle Columbia, which would go to the International Space Station.