WASHINGTON, June 27 (Xinhua) -- Space teacher Barbara Morgan, NASA's first professional educator astronaut, will hang up her spaceflight wings in August to become an educator at Idaho's Boise State University, the federal space agency announced on Friday.
Morgan's astronaut career has lasted more than 20 years, which culminated with a shuttle launch last year and made history to be the first teacher in space. She has logged more than 305 hours in space aboard shuttle Endeavour's STS-118 mission to the International Space Station in August 2007.
Morgan, who was an elementary schoolteacher in Idaho, first joined NASA in 1985 when she was selected as the backup civilian educator for the agency's Teacher in Space program. She left NASA and returned to teaching after the ill-fated launch of the space shuttle Challenger, which exploded and broke apart just after liftoff on Jan. 28, 1986 with seven astronauts aboard, including teacher Christa McAuliffe.
But Morgan returned in 1998, when she was selected as NASA's first educator astronaut. She was named to STS-118 crew in 2002, but her flight was delayed by a second shuttle tragedy, the 2003 loss of the shuttle Columbia and its crew of seven astronauts.
Finally, Morgan's flight came true. During her stay in space, Morgan taught lessons from space to schoolchildren on Earth and participated a lot of other tasks aboard.
"Barbara has served NASA and the Astronaut Office with distinction over the course of her career," NASA's Astronaut Office chief Steve Lindsey said in a statement. "From the Teacher in Space Program to her current position as a fully qualified astronaut, she has set a superb example and been a consistent role model for both teachers and students."
