Barbara Morgan Going into Space

Came across an article in the Chicago Tribune about Barbara Morgan, a teacher, who is going into space today on board the Space Shuttle Endeavor. She will be the first teacher into space, 22 years after she was got into the space program. She was Christa McAuliffe's backup on the ill-fated Challenger trip back in 1985.

I'm 56 now and Morgan is 55. I can think of a lot of things that I'd rather do at this age than go into space. As a former teacher myself, I couldn't be prouder that a fellow colleague gets the opportunity to do this after so long a wait. FIRST TEACHER IN SPACE!!!!!

I was at a teacher workshop in Rolling Meadows when I got news of the Challenger's demise. Everyone knew that Christa McAuliffe was in it. However, the fact that there had been so many successful launches of shuttles, no one really even considered the dangers. The meeting went very quiet when it was announced. I remember wearing a black arm band to school for about a week afterwards.

Best of Luck to Barbara and the Rest of the Crew--RoadDog