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Barbara Morgan is going to become the most famous astronaut in America. She has been waiting to go into space for 22 years, at which time she was still an amateur. Morgan was chosen as one of two schoolteachers to conduct lessons in orbit from the Space Shuttle. The other was Christa McAuliffe, who was picked to take off first, but never got to space-teach as she was killed when Challenger exploded. After that, NASA decided that its crews should be composed entirely of trained astronauts, so Morgan left the classroom to go into training. CBS' Kelly Cobiella previewed her first mission last month. Now ABC's Lisa Stark (subscription required) sat down with her as she braces for liftoff on Endeavour. "Space flight is risky. Space exploration is really challenging. It is a hostile environment," Morgan told her. Ever the teacher, Morgan will "spend almost a full day on education, filming lesson plans and holding a live discussion with students," said Stark.
Given the overblown fuss and bother last month (text link) about astronauts orbiting drunk, it was a surprise that Stark did not ask Morgan whether she enjoyed a tipple. NBC's Tom Costello heard Commander Scott Kelly of the Endeavour pledge that booze would have no place on his watch--to suggest otherwise is "utterly ridiculous," in Kelly's words. Costello questioned the entire snockered spacemen rumor. "Investigators have gone through every mission flown by American astronauts in the last ten years and they found nothing," Costello's colleague Jay Barbree stated.
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