You know, some days it’s good to realize you can still be amazed. The space shuttle endeavor is currently in space for STS-118, an assembly mission to the International Space Station. One of the mission specialists is Barbara Morgan, a former elementary school teacher who has been a full time astronaut since 1998. Morgan was Christa McAuliffe’s alternate for the Teacher in Space mission aboard the Challenger in 1986.
21 years later, she’s in space.
I really have no words for how wonderfully cool that is.
Thank GOODNESS someone else realized how important this was. I blogged about it, too - but I moaned and lamented that no one else was talking about it!
The shuttle mission was buzzing around on the outskirts of my radar until I saw a blurb somewhere that Morgan was McAuliffe’s alternate. To spend all that time waiting and then to finally finish the job is just a really amazing thing.
And this may be me science-geeking out, but I noticed that there isn’t an apple next to Morgan’s name on the mission patch. I’m guessing that’s because Morgan is considered a full-fledged permanent astronaut. Which is also a pretty neat thing.