Jake Allen
1.2K posts
40 Years ago Barbara Morgan watched as Challenger lifted off with a crew she'd got to know well. She was the backup for the teacher in space program. We all know what happened to the shuttle, and it's understandable that many people would see this and never want to fly on it. Barbara returned to teaching but would be offered another opportunity to become an astronaut in 1998, she was still working as an elementary school teacher at that time. She trained again and was expected to fly on STS-118, assigned to Columbia, while preparing for this flight she would be on a jet that was supposed to meet Columbia after it returned from space. Again she had a front row seat to a shuttle disaster. She was undeterred and would ultimately fly to the ISS on Endeavour in 2007, leading lessons from space. We all hear about fearless test pilots, but less about fearless elementary school teachers.

Hail got a little bit bigger in central Phoenix! #azwx @NWSPhoenix






