Students ready to launch questions
With a teacher scheduled to go into orbit today, it only makes sense she answer questions from those closest to her life’s work: students.
Former McCall elementary school teacher Barbara Morgan is part of the seven-member space shuttle Endeavour crew set to launch at 3:36 p.m. today.
As Morgan travels to the International Space Station, four students from North Idaho will join 14 other Idaho children at Boise’s Discovery Center of Idaho on Tuesday for their chance to question Morgan in space via a NASA downlink.
Cosette “Coco” Roberts, of Kellogg, Andrew Donilick, of Viola, Sarah Blum, of Moscow, and Zhu Jun Mayton, of Lewiston, were nominated by their teachers for their academic performance and interest in science.
Coco, 11, said she hasn’t decided what she’ll ask Morgan. Her father, Paul, said he expects she’ll come up with something after talking to the other children selected.
“It’s hard to know whether or not to just come across sounding curious or really intelligent,” he explained. “You want to make sure that you represent North Idaho well.”
Coco said her third-grade teacher, Michelle Kilbourne, nominated her. “She knew I wouldn’t have trouble talking in front of the crowd,” she said.
The 18 students, incoming fifth- through ninth-graders, will be joined by NASA representatives and members of Idaho’s congressional delegation at the Discovery Center. They’ll have 20 minutes total with Morgan and three or four other crew members, said Doug Lambuth, spokesman for the Discovery Center.
The students will be able to see Morgan and her crewmates via NASA TV video and hear them through an audio line in Houston linked to the space station. The astronauts will only hear the students. There will be about an eight-second delay between questions and answers, Lambuth said.
Each student will ask one question, most of which were submitted to NASA and edited to provoke succinct dialogue, Lambuth said.
“It does have to move in fairly orchestrated fashion,” he said.
Thirteen-year-old Andrew, of Viola, plans to ask Morgan how she’d spend an extra day in space. The incoming ninth-grader at Moscow Junior High School is on a Boy Scout canoeing trip this week and unavailable for comment, but his mother, Margaret, said he’s thrilled to have been selected.
“He is very interested in math and science, so he’s super excited about this opportunity,” Donilick said. “He also is very interested in building model rockets. It kind of goes along with the same theme.”
Morgan’s connection to Idaho has sparked a lot of interest in the event, Lambuth said. It’s what got 14-year-old Sarah, of Moscow, interested in Morgan when Sarah first learned about her in seventh-grade science.
“One time my teacher was talking about how there was going to be an astronaut from McCall going into space, and I thought, ‘Hey, my dad used to be a teacher in McCall,’ ” she said.
Sarah’s father, Paul, taught high school in McCall for a year while Morgan was teaching elementary school there. “I don’t know if she really knew him, but he, of course, knew of her because of the space thing,” said Carol Blum, Sarah’s mother.
Morgan was the backup in 1986 for the nation’s first designated “teacher in space,” Christa McAuliffe. She trained with McAuliffe, who was killed when the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded shortly after takeoff. Morgan’s a designated “educator-astronaut” and taught second and third grades at McCall-Donnelly Elementary School before going to work for NASA full time. The Endeavour is the country’s first attempt since the Challenger to put a teacher in orbit.
Though Sarah can’t remember the question she’ll ask Morgan – she submitted it back in April – she’ll have plenty of time to look it over before the big moment: The Discovery Center will have all kids run through a rehearsal.
The center has held activities in the weeks leading up to the launch and will host a celebration to coincide with the questioning.
“A lot of Idahoans are interested,” Lambuth said. “Barbara Morgan is a real icon here.”