Barbara Morgan

On June 28, 2008, Morgan announced that she would leave NASA for a teaching job at Boise State University. In August 2008, Morgan took a full-time position as a Distinguished Educator in Residence; a dual appointment to BSU's colleges of engineering and education. There she advises, leads and represents the university in policy development, advocacy and fund-raising in science, technology, engineering and math.

On July 4, 2008, Morgan received the "Friend of Education" award from the National Education Association. The following month Barbara R. Morgan Elementary School opened in McCall.

Morgan received the Adler Planetarium Women in Space Science Award in 2008.

STS-118, an assembly mission to the International Space Station, successfully launched from Florida's Kennedy Space Center at 6:36:42 p.m. EDT, 8 August 2007. Morgan served as robotic arm operator, and transfer coordinator, coordinating the transfer of over 5,000 pounds (2,300 kg) of cargo to the International Space Station, and bringing home over 3,000 pounds (1,400 kg). In addition to her other duties, Morgan participated in twenty-minute amateur radio question-and-answer sessions with young people at the Discovery Center of Idaho and other centers, and joined Mission Specialist Alvin Drew in an education event with young people at the Challenger Center for Space Science Education in Alexandria, Virginia. The event was hosted by June Scobee, widow of Space Shuttle Challenger's commander, Richard "Dick" Scobee. The center honored Morgan with the President George H.W. Bush Leadership Award. STS-118 landed successfully at Kennedy Space Center on August 21, a day ahead of schedule due to concerns about Hurricane Dean.

Like many other astronauts and cosmonauts, Morgan is a licensed amateur radio operator, having passed the technician class license exam in 2003. This qualified her to use the facilities of the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) project.

In January 1998, 12 years after McAuliffe's death, Morgan was selected by NASA as an astronaut candidate (Mission Specialist) and reported to the Johnson Space Center in August 1998 to begin training to become a full-time astronaut. Following the completion of two years of training and evaluation, she was assigned technical duties in the Astronaut Office Space Station Operations Branch. She served in the Astronaut Office CAPCOM Branch, working in Mission Control as prime communicator with on-orbit crews.

Morgan was selected as the backup candidate for the NASA Teacher in Space Project on July 19, 1985. From September 1985 to January 1986, Morgan trained with Christa McAuliffe and the Space Shuttle Challenger crew at NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas. Following McAuliffe's death in the Challenger disaster, Morgan assumed the duties of Teacher in Space Designee. From March 1986 to July 1986, she worked with NASA, speaking to educational organizations throughout the country. In the fall of 1986, Morgan returned to Idaho to resume her teaching career. She taught second and third grades at McCall-Donnelly Elementary and continued to work with NASA's Education Division, Office of Human Resources and Education. Her duties as Teacher in Space Designee included public speaking, educational consulting, curriculum design, and serving on the National Science Foundation's Federal Task Force for Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering.

Morgan began her teaching career in 1974 on the Flathead Indian Reservation at Arlee Elementary School in Arlee, Montana, where she taught remedial reading and math. From 1975 to 1978, she taught remedial reading/math and second grade at McCall-Donnelly Elementary School in McCall, Idaho. From 1978 to 1979, Morgan taught English and science to third graders at Colegio Americano de Quito in Quito, Ecuador, for a year. From 1979 to 1998, Morgan taught second, third, and fourth grades at McCall-Donnelly Elementary School.

Barbara Radding Morgan (born November 28, 1951) is an American teacher and a former NASA astronaut. She participated in the Teacher in Space program as backup to Christa McAuliffe for the 1986 ill-fated STS-51-L mission of the Space Shuttle Challenger. She then trained as a Mission Specialist, and flew on STS-118 in August 2007.

Morgan was born to Dr. and Mrs. Jerry Radding in 1951 and raised in Fresno, California, where she attended Herbert Hoover High School. Following graduation in 1969, she was accepted to Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, where she graduated with distinction in 1973 with a B.A. in Human Biology. She obtained her teaching credential from Notre Dame de Namur University in nearby Belmont in 1974.