Knock, knock. Hello? Anyone home at the AP?
Weather improving for tomorrow’s shuttle launch
Associated Press Aug. 7, 2007, 4:40PM
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – The weather is improving for Wednesday’s planned launch of Endeavour on a space station delivery mission featuring NASA’s first educator-astronaut.
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Seven astronauts are assigned to the mission, but the spotlight is on Barbara Morgan, who was Christa McAuliffe’s backup for Challenger’s doomed mission in 1986.
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Christa McAuliffe was the first educator-astronaut. Because she died doing her job does not disqualify her from the title.
I hope she and the rest of the STS-51-L crew will be watching over the Endeavour.
The explanation I heard this morning (Good Morning America, maybe – I flip around) was that Ms Morgan has been through complete astronaut training, something that Christa McAuliffe didn’t actually do. They didn’t explain what training Christa McAuliffe did have that made her eligible to go, but not actually be an astronaut. So she was “just” a teacher (and yes, I still hate that phrase, even tho I’m not a teacher any more).
Apparently Ms Morgan will be doing some interactive lesons while in space, but will also have regular astronaut duties involving using the robot arm, etc.
Wikipedia details as folows: “With the rise of space tourism, NASA and the Russian Federal Space Agency agreed to use the term “spaceflight participant” to distinguish those space travelers from professional astronauts on missions coordinated by those two agencies.”
This was after “While generally reserved for professional space travelers, the term [astronaut] is sometimes applied to anyone who travels into space, including scientists, politicians, journalists, and tourists.”
Needs some details in the AP story.
Although it seems a bit callous, McAuliffe is technically not an astronaut and never earned the title. NASA awards astronaut wings only to those who have flown above the 50-mile altitude. McAuliffe, unfortunately, never reached that height.