First Teacher Astronaut Barbara Morgan Launched Into Space

In an attempt to inspire the USA, NASA had once tried to send a schoolteacher into space more than 20 twenty years ago. But all ended in a tragedy, when the shuttle Challenger carrying the schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe exploded shortly after liftoff in 1986. Now twenty one years later, Barbara Morgan, Christa McAuliffe's backup as teacher-in-space, was finally blasted into the space together with her STS-118 Mission team boarding on the Endeavor from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The shuttle was launched (video here) on 6:36 p.m. EDT today August 8, 2007. Barbara Morgan is 55 years old now, and she has spent nearly half her life waiting for her launch.