Barbara Morgan

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Barbara Morgan
Barbara Morgan
Country: United States
Organization: NASA
selected on July 19, 1985
( Teacher in Space )
January 16, 1998
( 17th NASA Group )
Calls: 1 space flight
Begin: August 8, 2007
Landing: August 21, 2007
Time in space: 12d 17h 55min
retired on August 2008
Space flights

Barbara Radding "Barb" Morgan (born Barbara Radding on November 28, 1951 in Fresno , California , USA ) is a former American astronaut .

Morgan graduated from Hoover High School in Fresno, California in 1969. She received a bachelor's degree in human biology from Stanford University in Palo Alto in 1973 . In 1974 she received teaching credentials from the College of Notre Dame in California to work as a teacher.

Morgan started working as a teacher in 1974 at Arlee Elementary School in Arlee ( Montana ). From 1975 she taught for three years at the McCall-Donnelly Elementary School in McCall ( Idaho ).

Teacher in Space

Morgan (left) and McAuliffe (1985)

On July 19, 1985, Morgan was selected as a substitute candidate for Christa McAuliffe for the Teacher in Space project. From September 1985 to January 1986, both trained together with the crew of the Challenger for mission STS-51-L in the Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston ( Texas ).

McAuliffe was killed in the Challenger disaster in January 1986 and Morgan took over her duties. For a few months she traveled through the USA and gave lectures on behalf of NASA. In the fall of 1986 Morgan returned to Idaho to work again as a teacher at McCall Donnelly Elementary School. The Teacher-in-Space project has ended.

Astronaut activity

In January 1998, NASA came back to Morgan and introduced her as the first Educator Mission Specialist . After the selection, a two-year training and qualification as a “teacher in space” began. After initially performing technical tasks at NASA, she later worked in the Mission Control Center as Capcom .

STS-118

Morgan was selected for her first space flight in December 2002. The STS-118 mission was originally supposed to be carried out a year later, but had to be postponed due to the Columbia ( STS-107 ) crash in February 2003. The flight took place in August 2007. Morgan gave lessons from space, as Christa McAuliffe should have done around 20 years earlier.

According to NASA

In August 2008, she became a Distinguished Educator in Residence at Idaho Boise State University .

Private

Morgan is married and has two sons. She is a classical flutist and hobbies are jazz , literature , hiking , swimming and cross-country skiing .

See also

Web links

Commons : Barbara Morgan  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files
personal data
SURNAME Morgan, Barbara
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Morgan, Barbara Radding; Morgan, Barb (nickname); Radding, Barbara (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American astronaut
DATE OF BIRTH November 28, 1951
PLACE OF BIRTH Fresno , California