The space shuttle Endeavour lifted off into humid skies on Wednesday evening, carrying pieces of the International Space Station and a living reminder of the loss of the shuttle Challenger two decades ago.
One of the Endeavour’s astronauts, Barbara R Morgan, was the backup to Christa McAuliffe for the teacher-in-space program in 1986. Ms Morgan was one of the spectators at the Kennedy Space Centre when the Challenger exploded 73 seconds into flight on January 28, 1986, killing Ms McAuliffe and the other six astronauts.
As the Endeavour passed the 73-second mark on Wednesday night, Rob Nevias, providing commentary from the Johnson Space Centre in Houston, said Ms Morgan was “racing toward space on the wings of a legacy”. After the Challenger accident, Ms Morgan returned to work as an elementary school teacher in Idaho. Later, she decided she wanted to be an astronaut and joined the astronaut corps in 1998.
On this flight, her first, she is not a teacher but a mission specialist. Her primary task will be operating the shuttle’s robotic arm while other astronauts are conducting spacewalks.
But she is scheduled to conduct at least one video question-and-answer session with students on the ground. If the mission is extended to 14 days from 11, she will conduct two additional sessions.
