Teacher says she's ready to be a student in space

Teacher Barbara Morgan, 50, is set to go to the international space station in 2004.

JOHNSON SPACE CENTER, Texas (CNN) -- Longtime schoolteacher Barbara Morgan -- Christa McAuliffe's backup to fly aboard the ill-fated Challenger mission in 1986 -- said she plans to be a dutiful but enthusiastic student in space.

"Whatever I'm assigned to do, that's where I'll be," said Morgan, the first Education Mission Specialist to be chosen for a shuttle flight. She is set to go to the international space station in 2004.

Morgan was introduced Tuesday at a NASA news conference at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.

"I just see this personally for me as one very lucky step for what I hope will be going on forever and ever and ever and growing and growing and growing," Morgan said. "My very first goal is to be a good crew member, a part of a team, and to help ensure that the team meets the mission's success."

The other goal, she said, "is to learn as much as I can so that I can bring that learning to students and teachers."

Morgan, an elementary school teacher from Idaho, was chosen in 1998 for the NASA mission, a revival of the Teacher in Space program that was suspended when the Challenger exploded shortly after its January 28, 1986, liftoff.

She hasn't been in the classroom since she was picked, but she retains a teaching license in Idaho, NASA said.

"When NASA asked me if I would come and join the class of 1998, my personal goal was to do a good job so that this opportunity would be open for many teachers to come," she said. "And personally, I'm really glad that it's happened. I'm pretty happy."

A backup for McAuliffe in 1986

At the news conference, Morgan was asked questions about education, teaching and her intensive training for the space mission.

"If you are prepared for the challenges of the classroom and you are willing to study hard and learn, which is what you do in the classroom every day, then you are prepared to go through the training," she said.

"It has been a tremendous learning opportunity to learn everything that this crew is currently doing so that I can do the best job I can."

Morgan, 50, is married and the mother of two sons. After graduating with honors from Stanford University in 1974, she began her teaching career at Arlee Elementary School on the Flathead Indian Reservation in Montana.

She taught remedial reading and math and second grade at McCall-Donnelly Elementary School in Idaho from 1975 to 1978. In 1978-79, she taught third-graders in Ecuador. She returned to McCall in 1979.

NASA selected her as a backup candidate for the Teacher in Space program in 1985. After the program's suspension, Morgan continued to work with NASA as the Teacher in Space designee, mostly giving speeches at schools around the United States.

In fall 1986, she returned to Idaho and resumed teaching elementary school. Over the years, she continued to work with NASA's Education Division.

A full-time astronaut, she has been in training at the Johnson Space Center since then-NASA chief Dan Goldin announced the resumption of the Teacher in Space program in 1998.

Rather than select a new person for the job, NASA decided to stick with Morgan, who trained alongside McAuliffe for six months. The agency mandated that Morgan become an astronaut candidate and complete full training before being eligible for assignment to a mission.

Morgan said she won't be fulfilling McAuliffe's mission but she will be helping "carry it on."

"There is no endpoint to education, just like there is no end to the universe and the kinds of things that NASA is doing to try to explore that universe," Morgan said, adding that "we will always be trying new ideas and trying to do the best we can for our students."

She said she is looking forward to her mission with quiet anticipation.

"When the day finally arrives, it finally arrives," she said. "It's not something you think about every day."