After more than a 16-year hiatus, NASA has announced plans to revive its mission of sending an educator into space.
Barbara Morgan, who has been serving as communications liaison for the current crew of the International Space Station, has been selected to join a shuttle crew for a 2004 launch.
A 50-year-old mother of two, Morgan began training for this mission nearly two decades ago as the original backup to Christa McAuliffe, who died in the January 1986 explosion of the space shuttle Challenger.
Since the disaster, NASA had been reluctant to send another civilian into space. As the years unfolded, and following the highly-publicized, and successful October 1998 mission of former Mercury astronaut Senator John Glenn, plans were put back on the board.
\It is time for NASA to complete the Challenger mission'to send an educator into space to inspire and teach our young people,"" NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe said in speech Friday afternoon at Syracuse University.
According to O'Keefe, Morgan's flight assignment will be as part of a shuttle crew working at the space station.
