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Monday, November 3, 2003 I HE BAITALIOI
Teacher-astronaut carries on dream
By Marcia Dunn
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
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THE BATTALION
SPACE CENTER, Houston — In just over a
week, Barbara Morgan should have been rocket
ing into orbit as NASA’s first fully trained educa
tor-astronaut, carrying on the shattered dream of
Christa McAuliffe.
Like the space shuttle fleet, though, Morgan is
grounded indefinitely.
Her ship, Columbia, is gone along with seven
more friends, lost in a wintry Texas sky. Yet the for
mer Idaho elementary schoolteacher who was
McAuliffe’s backup for the Challenger flight is
detennined to persevere. NASA remains commit
ted to the education-in-space program as well.
In fact, NASA has gone far beyond the brief
training McAuliffe and Morgan got for Challenger.
Morgan is a full-fledged astronaut now, and the
space agency plans to accept a few more teachers
into the astronaut corps early next year.
Morgan, who is helping with the teacher selec
tion, insists she hasn’t had a single second thought
about flying in space since the Columbia tragedy.
She didn’t after the Challenger
accident, either. ££
“It all goes back to what we are
doing and why we are doing it, and
space exploration is very, very
important,” Morgan told The
Associated Press. “It’s important
to us as human beings and, certain
ly from my point of view as a
teacher, it’s crucial for our kids and
for the future. In any bad situation,
you figure out what you’re going
to do to try to make things better
and go forward.”
In one of her first interviews
the February disaster.
It all goes back to
what we are doing
and why we are
doing it, and space
exploration is very,
very important.
— Barbara Morgan
teacher-astronaut
since
Morgan talked last week about the shock and
anguish she felt when Columbia broke apart
over Texas.
Morgan was in the shuttle training aircraft that
Saturday morning, flying over the Florida touch
down site, observing the landing weather and
awaiting Columbia’s arrival. The next time
Columbia took off, in November, she would be on
board, bound for the international space station.
Her excitement and anticipation swiftly disin
tegrated into grief. Almost 17 years to the day of
the Challenger launch explosion, she found her
self once again consoling the wives, husbands,
children and parents of seven dead astronauts.
“It’s just like after Challenger,” said Morgan, a
slender, soft-spoken woman who turns 52 later
this month. “People kept asking, ’Gee, aren’t you
glad it wasn't you.’ I do get that question and I get
this question this time, ’Gee, that was your ship.’
“And 1 can tell you none of those thougl,
went through my mind at all. I mean, all you'i?
doing is thinking about the people and thefamilis
and what we can do to make things better."
Morgan was a close friend of them all. She till
worked and trained alongside McAuliffe for tit
previous half-year; if McAuliffe got sicks
injured before the flight, Morgan would bi
stepped in.
On Feb. 1, Morgan was aboard the shutti
training aircraft with chief astronaut Kei
Rominger and two other crew who were inral
contact with Mission Control. At first, Columbia,
loss of communication did not worry her; btirf
blackouts sometimes happen during re-entry. Biit
as the silence stretched from seconds into minuter
she feared the worst.
By the time the training plane landed, Morga:
knew Columbia and its crew were gone. She die
n’t need to hear Mission Control declaringi'.
emergency or see TV pictures of the rainir-:
wreckage 1,000 miles away.
Nine months later, Morgan speaks in a straw;
voice to describe that day.
“I don’t have a whole lottos®
about it, except it was horrible,'
said. "More than anything, it’srt
really sad.”
Back in 1985, when McAuliffeani
Morgan were selected as the two K
candidates for NASA’s teacher in spa
program, their shuttle training
Houston lasted a mere five months.
When Morgan finally was invited;;
join NASA in 1998, she moved ta
McCall, Idaho, to Houston, and foi
years of training passed before shews
assigned to a space station construct
mission. Her launch date was No
■ 13, 2003, aboard Columbia.
Volut
V
While Columbia circled Earth in January wi
unknown to the space agency, a deadly gashinii;
left wing, Morgan joined NASA Administrate
Sean O’Keefe in launching a program to recti
more teachers as astronauts.
The requirements; teachers of kindergartet
through 12th grade w-ho have bachelor’s degree
in education, engineering, math or science, ami
who are U.S. citizens and have taught for at to
three of the past four years.
The courage it takes to enter a school wi
metal detectors at the doors every day is the s;
courage it takes to strap into a rocketship, aco
ing to Morgan. The commitment is also the sa
Sure, children ask her if she will be afraidtofly
in space. She tells them she’ll be “really, really
alert on the launch pad just as everybody else is.
But at least for me. I made those decisions a lo#s
time ago, pre- and post-Challenger.”
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U.S
FACULTY/STAFF MEMBERSHIPS—Now has never been a
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‘ ' - TShe
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rec sports, tam. ePa
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