In 1986, Barbara Morgan was a substitute teacher in case Christa McAuliffe was not flying the Challenger. About ten years ago she returned to NASA as an astronaut to repay the debt and again her flight that was supposed to take place on the Columbia shuttle was postponed for four years*Tonight she will take off in Endeavour
Barbara Morgan, training for the mission, 2007
21 and a half years ago she waited on the ground in case Christa McAuliffe, a teacher chosen to fly on the Challenger shuttle. 4 years ago she waited for Columbia to return to take off with her to the space station a few months later to the space station. The disaster caused the spacecraft to be replaced. Barbara Morgan will fly into space tonight.
The wife of the US President, Laura Bush, yesterday called Barbara Morgan, the astronaut and former teacher who is scheduled to take off tonight for the first time into space aboard the space shuttle Endeavor on mission STS-118 and congratulated her on her flight.
Morgan, a native of Idaho, was chosen in 1985 as a replacement and backup for Christa McAuliffe. After the Challenger disaster, the program was suspended and Morgan worked in NASA's Education Department, meeting with teachers and students across the US to share her experience of space training and its relevance to the classroom and America's future. In the fall of 1986, she returned to her elementary school in Idaho, but continued to travel around the US to assist with NASA's education program. In January 1998, she was selected by NASA to complete her astronaut training. For over a year, Morgan served in the control center in Houston, and served as the voice link between flight control and the crews in space.
The irony of fate is that the mission that Morgan embarks on was originally planned to be carried out in 2003 on the space shuttle Columbia, and the announcement was made on the eve of the Columbia shuttle launch.
In an interview with the NASA website, she said that she is excited: I am excited about the possibility of going up there and doing the work. We trained hard. I am excited that I will have the experience of space flight, see the Earth from space for the first time and experience weightlessness and everything that entails - and especially see how it is possible to live and work on the International Space Station.
"When the Teacher in Space initiative started, I was sitting at home. It was around five in the evening, and the president announced on the news that we were going to send a teacher into space. I immediately shouted "Wow". As did many teachers across the country. What a beautiful opportunity, because as teachers we have always looked for opportunities to bring the world into the classroom, to gain more experience, to gain more knowledge about the world so that we can make the classrooms a better place for the children. It was a great opportunity, and like all teachers we didn't want to miss the opportunity.
In the photo: Barbara Morgan (right) and Christa McAuliffe, before the launch of the space shuttle Challenger in 1986.
And how did you react when President Reagan announced that Kritsa McAuliffe would be the one to show up and be her replacement in case she was unfit to fly?"We were all excited and determined to do what we do. Christa was, is, and always will be the teacher in the space in God's knowledge. The first teacher to fly. She really knew what it entailed, not only to bring the world into her classroom but also to help show the world what teachers do and especially what good teachers across the country do day after day.
In the months you spent together at the Johnson Space Center in training, what did you learn from her, what did she learn from you?"As teachers, we held many meetings in our classrooms, and with the staff members in the teachers' room as well as with the management, so at least from my point of view, the feeling was like being in a classroom, in a part of sharing experiences with each other to get the most out of the experience. I learned a lot about Kirtsa. She was a good representative of the teaching profession. . This is a lesson I still have to remind myself how to pay attention to the most important things and let the other things that are not so important fall out of focus. What was important to Christa were her students and their honesty.
3 תגובות
Something strange in part of the story and that is the technical detail
that the spaceship Columbia could not connect at all
to the space station.
When Columbia was designed and built, NASA did not know what the connection to the space station would look like, so it was not done at Columbia.
After that they decided on the standard and therefore the other 4 ferries
including the Challenger were already equipped with the required connection, but
Colombia no!!
exciting