America's students have waited a generation to talk to a teacher in space, and when the chance came Tuesday they made the most of it.
Twenty-one years after the Challenger disaster that claimed teacher-in-space Christa McAuliffe, 18 students taking part in a NASA Endeavour linkup at Boise's Discovery Center of Idaho peppered educator-astronaut Barbara Morgan and fellow crew members with questions on subjects from weightlessness to global warming. Morgan and astronauts Clay Anderson, Alvin Drew Jr. and Dave Williams answered questions and did cheer-inducing demonstrations throughout the 20-minute session.
When it was over, several of the students said they hoped to become astronauts.
Brooke Thomas, a sixth-grader at Payette Lakes Middle School in Morgan's former hometown of McCall, said she was frightened for Morgan's safety before talking to her, but she felt better afterwards.
"It helped to see her and talk to her and know she's OK," Brooke said. "I'm going to go home and tell my teachers I'm more interested in math and science and becoming an astronaut now."
Frank Walline, an eighth-grader at Sand Creek Middle School in Idaho Falls, hushed the audience with a question about whether the effects of global warming were visible from space. Anderson replied that it was possible to see the reduced size of rain forests, the effects of fires and an iceberg that had split in two.
Morgan's response to a question from Emmett sixth-grader Falyn Henry on how astronauts drink in the weightlessness of space brought cheers and laughter. Dressed in gray pants and a green shirt, her long, weightless hair standing straight up, Morgan unsuccessfully tried to grab a gelatinous glob of fruit juice before retrieving it — successfully — with a straw. The kids voted it the best moment of the session.
Morgan, who has been waiting for her chance in space since she was the backup to teacher-in-space McAuliffe, also got good reviews for lifting two of her fellow crew members and demonstrating the shuttle's robotic arm.
Asked the most difficult part of the mission, she said there are "some things you can't prepare for. It was a big surprise to me that for the whole first day I felt like I was upside-down."
When seventh-grader Paige Dashiell of Nampa's South Middle School asked what the stars look like from space, Morgan's Idaho-tailored answer was that when the lights of the shuttle and International Space Station are on for work, "It's like trying to look at the stars from Boise." When the lights are off, she said, "it's like watching them from McCall," a small mountain town with less light pollution.
The question that may have been closest to Morgan's heart came from Sarah Blum of Moscow: "How does being a teacher relate with being an astronaut?"
"Astronauts and teachers do the same things," Morgan replied. "They explore, discover and share. Teachers get to do it with students, and astronauts get to do it in space, and they're both absolutely wonderful jobs."
Bellevue fifth-grader Hunter Frye was impressed by "how astronauts play around in space, how they have fun."
His career goal is "to be the guy in mission control."
Four students interviewed after their exchange with the astronauts said it made them want to be astronauts.
Dashiell, who has her heart set on a career in forensic science, doesn't see a conflict.
"I want to be the first forensic scientist to go into space," she said.
Tim Woodward: 377-6409
