Teacher on Shuttle to Call Local Woman
By Karen Nazor Hill, Chattanooga Times/Free Press, Tenn.
When teacher-turned-astronaut Barbara Morgan calls this morning from the space shuttle Endeavor to talk to students at the Challenger Center outside Washington, D.C., Chattanoogan June Scobee Rodgers will answer the call.
"I’ve been preparing my message," Mrs. Rodgers said. "It will go something like ‘Congratulations, Endeavor crew. Barbara, we’ve been standing at the Challenger Center waiting for your call for 21 years.’ "
Mrs. Rodgers said she has been dreaming of the day a teacher finally would make it into space.
On Jan. 28, 1986, the shuttle Challenger exploded, killing Dr. Rodgers’ husband, shuttle commander Dick Scobee, and six other astronauts, including teacher Christa McAuliffe. Since then, Dr. Rodgers has been an outspoken advocate for sending a teacher into space.
Ms. Morgan was a back-up astronaut for Ms. McAuliffe and trained with the Challenger crew.
Dr. Rodgers said she is "over-the-moon happy" about Ms. Morgan’s call from space.
"It’s a culmination of all the rewards of the Challenger Centers that were founded in honor of the education mission of the Challenger," she said. "It has caught on nationally and around the world. It has come full circle — millions of kids are flying (in simulated flights in Challenger Centers)."
Mrs. Morgan and fellow crew member Rick Mastracchio will field questions from 20 children in a 20-minute live interview at the Challenger Center for Space Science Education in Alexandria, Va.
Twenty-one fifth-graders at Battle Academy in Chattanooga, as well as students in each of the 51 Challenger Centers, took part in an interactive Webcast Wednesday with former astronauts Dr. Joseph Allen, William Readdy and Dr. Roger Crouch, said Kaitlyn Vann, Challenger Center flight director.
Chattanooga’s Challenger Center director Tom Patty said Battle Academy is a certified NASA Explorer School and was selected via an application process.
Student Shania Douglas, 10, said it was an honor to participate in the event.
"It’s so cool to get to submit a question to astronauts and hear what they have to say," Shania said. "I want them to do good work up there that will help us down here on Earth."
REMEMBERING CHALLENGER
Dr. Rodgers spearheaded the founding of the Challenger Centers soon after the Challenger explosion. According to www.challenger.org, the Challenger crew’s families committed to the belief that they must carry on the spirit of their loved ones by continuing the crew’s educational mission. The first Challenger Center was in Houston, Texas, and now there are 51 centers in the continental U.S., Hawaii, Alaska, Canada, England, and South Korea.
Educating children about the benefits of space exploration has been the goal of Dr. Rodgers, a former kindergarten-through-12th-grade teacher with a doctorate from Texas A&M University.
Also following the mission of Endeavor is Dr. Rodgers’ daughter, Kathie Scobee Fulgham, manager of creative strategies at Derryberry Public Relations in Chattanooga.
"It’s exciting for Barbara and our nation to have a teacher in space," Mrs. Fulgham said. "It will really fire up the imagination of children to have that downlink where they’re actually talking to an astronaut in space and asking questions. It’s been a long time coming."
Dr. Rodgers attended Endeavor’s launch last week at Cape Canaveral, Fla. It was her first since witnessing the Challenger’s explosion in 1986.
"Many of my friends have flown, and I’ve watched it on TV and said prayers as it was launching," she said. "But I couldn’t make myself go back."
She said Barbara Morgan is the reason she changed her mind.
"I’ve been waiting," she said. "There was no way I would have missed this, whether it was to get there hitchhiking or crawling — nothing would have stopped me."
Dr. Rodgers said she held onto her husband, retired Army Lt. Gen. Don Rodgers, "for dear life" during the launch.
"I was on the edge of existence as the shuttle rocket engines ignited and puffs of steam came out and it lifted off the launch pad. It was a steady stream of bright orange, and it kept going higher and higher. Then it rotated and went off like a star in the sky," she said.
"Once in orbit, I broke down in tears of joy, delight and relief, and then I just buried myself in Don’s shoulder and cried," she said. "I’ve just been so involved since the Challenger, and to experience this as well as recalling Dick Scobee on the Challenger just released all these emotions."
Mrs. Fulgham was a college student when her father and his crew died in 1986.
"I actually knew Barbara better than I knew Christa McAuliffe, because Barbara came to our house for Thanksgiving when she was an alternate on Daddy’s crew," she said. "Because she was an alternate, she trained with the rest of the crew."
The families have remained close throughout the years, she said.
E-mail Karen Nazor Hill at khill@timesfreepress.com