Barbara morgan astronaut teacher killed

American teacher and former astronaut (born 1951)

For other people named Barbara Morgan, see Barbara Morgan (disambiguation).

Barbara Radding Morgan (born November 28, 1951) is an American teacher and a former NASAastronaut. She participated in the Teacher in Space Project as backup to Christa McAuliffe for the 1986 ill-fatedSTS-51-L mission of the Space Shuttle Challenger.

In 1998, eight years after the Teacher in Space Project had ended, she was selected by NASA as an astronaut candidate, training as a mission specialist; astronaut Morgan flew on STS-118 in August 2007. As such, she became the first teacher (by original career) to go into space.^[1]

Early life and education

Morgan was born to Dr.

and Mrs. Jerry Radding in 1951 and raised in Fresno, California, where she attended Herbert Hoover High School. Following graduation in 1969, she was accepted to Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, where she graduated with distinction in 1973