Biography
Barbara Morgan is a retired NASA astronaut and veteran educator. In 1985, she was the public elementary school teacher who trained with the Challenger crew as the backup for Teacher in Space Christa McAuliffe in NASA’s Teacher in Space Program. Later, after teaching 24 years in diverse locations including the Bay Area of California, the Flathead Indian Reservation in Montana, Colegio Americano in Quito, Ecuador, and a small mountain town in Idaho, Morgan was selected to NASA’s 1998 class of astronaut candidates. She flew on space shuttle Endeavour in 2007 to help construct the International Space Station, traveling 5.3 million miles and logging over 305 hours in space. On that mission, Morgan served as shuttle and station robotic arm operator, loadmaster, educator, and flight deck crew member for entry and landing. In addition to spaceflight, Morgan worked in Mission Control as prime communicator (“Capcom”) with on-orbit crews, and she served in the Space Station Operations Branch and Robotics Branch of the Astronaut Office. After 10 years of astronaut service, Morgan retired from NASA to become Distinguished Educator in Residence (now Emeritus) at Boise State University, leading policy and program development, and mentoring in STEM. She also continues her work with national and international education organizations, non-profits, and NASA.