Shuttle Endeavour puts teacher in orbit

By Marcia Dunn

updated 10:50 p.m. ET Aug. 8, 2007

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - The space shuttle Endeavour roared into orbit Wednesday carrying teacher-astronaut Barbara Morgan, who was finally fulfilling the dream of Christa McAuliffe and the rest of the fallen Challenger crew.

Endeavour and its crew of seven rose from the seaside pad at 6:36 p.m. ET, right on time, and pierced a solidly blue sky. They are expected to reach the international space station on Friday.

Once Endeavour was safely past the 73-second mark of the flight, the moment when Challenger exploded shortly after the call “Go at throttle up,” Mission Control commentator Rob Navias exclaimed, “Morgan racing toward space on the wings of a legacy.”

Immediately after the shuttle reached orbit, Navias announced, “For Barbara Morgan and her crewmates, class is in session.”

Morgan, now 55, was McAuliffe’s backup for Challenger’s doomed launch in 1986. Even after two space shuttle disasters — Challenger as well as Columbia in 2003 — Morgan never swayed in her dedication to NASA and the agency’s on-and-off quest to send a schoolteacher into space. She rocketed away in the center seat of the cabin’s lower compartment, the same seat that had been occupied by McAuliffe.

McAuliffe’s mother, Grace Corrigan, watched the launch on TV from her home in Massachusetts. “I’m very happy that it went up safely,” she said. “We all send her our love,” she added, her voice breaking.

Teachers in attendance
More than half of NASA’s 114 Teacher-in-Space nominees in 1985 gathered at the launch site, along with hundreds of other educators.

Also on hand was the widow of Challenger’s commander, who said earlier in the day that she would be praying and pacing at liftoff and would not relax until Morgan was safely back on Earth in two weeks.

The Challenger crew “would be so happy with Barbara Morgan,” June Scobee Rodgers said. “It’s important that the lessons will be taught because there’s a nation of people waiting, still, who remember where they were when we lost the Challenger and they remember a teacher was aboard.”

NASA Administrator Michael Griffin met Tuesday night with several members of the Challenger astronaut families in town for the launch — although not the McAuliffe family.

After liftoff, Education Secretary Margaret Spellings sent congratulations from Washington and called Morgan “an inspiring example for our next generation of teachers, scientists, engineers, innovators and entrepreneurs.”

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