(Associated Press)
Shuttle astronauts Tracy Caldwell, left, Barbara Morgan and Commander Scott Kelly talk with news media from weightless space Tuesday.
Endeavour becomes classroomShuttle repairs are still being debated
August 15, 2007
BY MARCIA DUNN
ASSOCIATED PRESS
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Teacher-astronaut Barbara Morgan transformed the space shuttle and space station into a classroom Tuesday for her first education session from orbit, fulfilling the legacy of Christa McAuliffe.
"I've thought about Christa and the Challenger crew just about every day since 20-plus years ago," Morgan said. "I hope that they know that they are here with us in our hearts."
Morgan, 55, who was McAuliffe's backup for the tragic 1986 flight, got her first opportunity to talk with schoolchildren Tuesday, almost halfway through her two-week trip.
The youngsters were assembled at the Discovery Center of Idaho in Boise, less than 100 miles from the elementary school where Morgan taught.
Morgan was asked how being a teacher compared to being an astronaut.
"Astronauts and teachers actually do the same thing," she said. "We explore, we discover and we share. And the great thing about being a teacher is you get to do that with students, and the great thing about being an astronaut is you get to do it in space, and those are absolutely wonderful jobs."
The session was a welcome diversion for NASA, which found itself still trying to explain why foam insulation still was falling off shuttle fuel tanks more than four years after the Columbia disaster.
The gouge in shuttle Endeavour's belly wasn't considered a threat to the crew, but NASA was debating whether to send astronauts out to fix it in order to avoid time-consuming post-flight repairs.
The testing and analyses are expected to be completed today.
The repair would be relatively simple, but astronauts would wear 300-pound spacesuits and carry 150 pounds of tools, which could hit the shuttle and cause more damage.
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