Spring Break
Idaho astronaut Barbara Morgan comes home
JESSICA HENDERSON
News Writer
Issue date: 12/6/07 Section: News
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Barbara Morgan will speak at the Morrison Center Monday, Dec. 10 at 6:30 p.m., as part of a welcome home event sponsored by the Discovery Center of Idaho.
Morgan is an elementary school teacher from McCall, and also an astronaut for NASA.
She began teaching in 1974 on the Flathead Indian Reservation in Arlee Elementary School in Arlee, Montana. Before her work with NASA, she taught second, third and fourth grade at the McCall-Donnelly Elementary School.
She was selected for the Teacher in Space program, created by former President Ronald Reagan, as the backup to Christa McAuliffe for the STS-51L mission of Space Challenger of 1986.
McAuliffe and six other astronauts died when the Challenger Shuttle exploded Jan. 28, 1986 off the coast of central Florida. The disaster resulted in a 32-month halt to the shuttle program
In the fall of 1986, Morgan returned to Idaho to resume teaching second and third grade at McCall-Donnelly Elementary. She continued to work with NASA's Education Division, Office of Human Resources and Education.
According to the NASA Website (www.jsc.nasa.gov), as a Teacher in Space Designee, Morgan's duties consisted of public speaking, educational consulting, curriculum design and serving on the National Science Foundation's Federal Task Force for Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering.
The Educator Astronaut Project replaced the Teacher in Space program in the 1990s, and NASA selected Morgan as a mission specialist in 1998. This required her to live in Houston and become a full-time NASA employee. After training, she was assigned to technical duties in the Astronaut Office Space Station Operations Branch and worked in Mission Control as prime communicator with on-orbit crews.
In 2003, she was selected to be a crewmember for STS-118, an assembly mission to the international space station.
On Aug. 8, 2007, Morgan and six other crew members launched into space.
She served as a robotic arm operator, transfer coordinator and participated in a 20-minute radio question and answer session with young people at the Discovery Center of Idaho (located in Julia Davis Park) as well as other centers.
Back on Earth and back in Boise, Morgan will address students from fourth through eighth grade at the Morrison Center about her time in space.
According to Doug Lambuth, marketing and public relations director of the Discovery Center of Idaho, Morgan's talk with the students will have an educational focus and extra time for questions.
"She prefers interaction," Lambuth said.
For more information, visit the Discovery Center's Website at www.scidaho.org
If You Are Going:
Who: Teacher and Astronaut Barbara Morgan
Where: Morrison Center
When: Monday, Dec. 10 at 6:30 pm
How: Admission is free, but tickets are required. Visit the Discovery Center of Idaho (located in Julia Davis Park) to pick up tickets.
The Discovery Center will not accept telephone or e-mail inquiries regarding the purchase of tickets.
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