Since this mission is getting the ISS built and serviced the "Teacher In Space" aspect is not being pushed. The fact it is summer and school is not in session. Also, Commander Kelly has stressed Barbara is an astronaut first and teacher second. They will be having a teaching session to the Idaho students that attend the school that Barbara Morgan taught at. Granted she is an Astronaut and was part of the "Teachers in Space" Program. But now NASA hired her as an Astronaut. And Her former job was a teacher.
And yet, Morgan’s role was somewhat muted going into last week’s launch (though Mission Control did mark her space arrival with a glib, “For Barbara Morgan and her crew, class is in session.”) and even more so now as Endeavour’s tile damage overshadows her space presence.
It is both perplexing and understandable at the same time.
Through the karma of shuttle flight scheduling, Morgan’s flight falls outside the school year, limiting the agency’s education reach to schools across the nation.
And since her assignment to STS-118 in late 2002 and the Columbia accident a year later, NASA has shifted its shuttle missions to make completion of the International Space Station a priority, so construction - not education - takes center stage.
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