By The Associated Press
Teacher-astronaut Barbara Morgan transformed the space shuttle and space station into a classroom Tuesday for her first education session from orbit, fulfilling the legacy of Christa McAuliffe with joy and also some sadness.
"I've thought about Christa and the Challenger crew just about every day since 20-plus years ago," Morgan said in a series of interviews right before class got under way. "I hope that they know that they are here with us in our hearts."
Morgan, 55, who was McAuliffe's backup for the doomed 1986 flight, got her first opportunity to talk with schoolchildren late Tuesday afternoon, almost halfway through her two-week mission.
Hundreds of youngsters jammed the Discovery Center of Idaho in Boise, less than 100 miles from the elementary school where Morgan taught before becoming an astronaut. Her two sons, now teenagers, attended inventors' camp there years ago.
One child wanted to know about exercising in space. In response, Morgan lifted the two large men floating alongside her, one in each hand, and pretended to be straining. Another youngster wanted to see a demonstration of drinking in space. Morgan and her colleagues obliged by squeezing bubbles from a straw in a drink pouch and swallowing the red blobs, which floated everywhere. The four astronauts also used pingpong balls and a softball for props.
Afterward, 12-year-old Paige Dashiell said: It's not every day you talk to someone in space." Paige asked what stars look like from space. The answer: Stars shine steadily and don't twinkle since there's no atmosphere to distort the light.
Morgan was also asked how being a teacher compared to being an astronaut.
"Astronauts and teachers actually do the same thing," she answered. "We explore, we discover and we share. And the great thing about being a teacher is you get to do that with students, and the great thing about being an astronaut is you get to do it in space, and those are absolutely wonderful jobs."
The 25-minute question-and-answer session was a welcome diversion for NASA, which found itself trying to explain NASA is redesigning the brackets, but the new ones won't be ready until next year—again—why foam insulation was still falling off shuttle fuel tanks more than four years after the Columbia disaster.
The gouge in shuttle Endeavour's belly was not considered a threat to the crew, but NASA was debating whether to send astronauts out to fix it in order to avoid time-consuming post-flight repairs.
So far, NASA's thermal analyses makes everyone "cautiously optimistic" that no repairs will be needed, said John Shannon, chairman of the mission management team. All the testing and analyses should be completed by Wednesday.
"My understanding is that it's really not a safety issue for us on board," said Endeavour's commander, Scott Kelly. "There isn't a whole lot of concern on board right now."
Indeed, business went on as usual aboard the joined shuttle-station complex Tuesday. Morgan and her colleagues removed a platform from Endeavour's payload bay and attached it to the international space station, where it will be used to hold large spare parts.
A special team of astronauts and specialists spent a second day Tuesday mapping out what would be the best way to proceed, if repairs are ordered. Most likely, two astronauts would be maneuvered on the end of Endeavour's 100-foot robot arm and extension boom to the difficult-to-reach spot, and apply a black paint and caulk-like goo to the damage.
A sliver of the gouge, which is 3½ inches long and 2 inches wide, penetrates all the way through two thermal tiles, exposing the thin felt fabric that is the final barrier before the shuttle's aluminum frame. Columbia's hole was considerably bigger and in a wing, which sees higher temperatures than the 2,000 degrees that scorch the ship's underside during re-entry.
Any repairs would be conducted during the shuttle's fourth spacewalk, scheduled for Friday. If more time is needed to get ready, NASA will keep the shuttle at the station even longer and bump the spacewalk to Saturday.
Even though the repair itself would be relatively simple, the astronauts would be wearing 300-pound spacesuits and carrying 150 pounds of tools that could bang into the shuttle and cause even more damage. All spacewalks are hazardous, Shannon noted, and so NASA would not want to add more outside work unless it was absolutely necessary.
"I've been really interested in it but I think NASA's doing the right thing," said Morgan's husband, Clay.
NASA is uncertain whether foam, ice or a combination of both broke off Endeavour's external fuel tank during last Wednesday's liftoff. The debris—4 inches long, almost 4 inches wide and almost 2 inches deep—peeled away from a bracket on the tank, fell against a strut lower on the tank, then shot into the shuttle's belly. It weighed less than an ounce.
These brackets have shed foam, more frequently than ever, since shuttle flights resumed following the 2003 Columbia disaster, Shannon said. Engineers speculate more ice could be forming on these brackets because the super-cold fuel is being loaded an hour earlier than before.
NASA is redesigning the brackets, but the new ones won't be ready until next year.
Educational Researcher
E- mail : sanaa79@scs-net.org
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