(20 Jan 2007)
AP Television
1. Wide of Barbara Morgan talking to children about space
2. Close-up of Morgan giving lecture
3. Mid of morgan giving lecture
NASA TV
4. SOUNDBITE: (English) Barbara Morgan, Teacher preparing to travel into space:
"I can't think of anything more important than our young people and their future and to be able to help keep that future open ended never ending opportunities, that's what space exploration is all about. It's about exploring, it's about discovering. As you know there's a tremendous amount that we don't know about our universe and that universe is constantly expanding so it's all about keeping those doors open, helping keep those doors open for young people so that that future is ongoing."
AP Television
5. Mid of children listening to Morgan
6. Wide of lecture
7. Wide zoom in and pan left of lecture
NASA TV
8. SOUNDBITE: (English) Barbara Morgan, Teacher preparing to travel into space:
"We're doing assembly mission helping to complete the construction of the International Space Station and that is a big stepping stone to our going back to the moon and not just for short visits but to stay and really be able to explore for a long time and then go on to Mars and then beyond, that's what I'm really excited about."
AP Television
9. Mid of morgan giving lecture
10. Wide of Morgan giving lecture
STORYLINE:
Former teacher Barbara Morgan is getting ready to blast off into space in June as a fully-fledged member of NASA's astronaut corps.
Morgan, NASA's first "educator astronaut" spent an hour of briefing school children on the upcoming mission at the IMAX theatre at Space Centre Houston on Friday
The former teacher said that she couldn't think of "anything more important than our young people and their future and to be able to keep that future open ended never ending opportunities, that's what space exploration is all about.''
''There's a tremendous amount that we don't know about our universe and that universe is constantly expanding so it's all about keeping those doors open helping keep those doors open for young people so that that future is ongoing," Morgan added.
Educator astronauts visit schools and give NASA's education division ideas that would appeal to teachers and students, with the goal of interesting children in becoming the physicists, engineers, mathematicians and pilots of the future.
Morgan was the understudy of teacher Christa McAuliffe on the ill-fated space shuttle Challenger mission, which in 1986 blew up shortly after blast-off in a shocking, nationally televised explosion that killed all seven aboard the craft.
Morgan, a Fresno, California native who now lives in Houston was interested in space as a child but thought the field wasn't an option for women. Instead, she taught science and math, her other passions. Then, despite fierce competition, she was chosen as McAuliffe's understudy.
In 1998, Morgan was inducted into the astronaut corps.
Morgan and five other crewmates are scheduled to blast into space in June on an 11-day mission to continue assembly of the international space station.
Though NASA is still figuring out the details, the agency's education division hopes Morgan will have time to do some teaching activities from space, such as a question-and-answer session.
The crew will take with them basil seeds that will later be shipped to students participating in a K-12 competition designing and building creative plant growth chambers. The cosmo-dusted seeds will be their test material in the effort to promote interest in the hard sciences.
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