After more than two decades of waiting, teacher Barbara Morgan is orbiting the earth, 
getting accustomed to zero gravity and preparing to conduct three live classes as part of NASA’s troubled teachers in space program.
The program has been troubled, not because of the concept or the difficulty of finding teachers, but because the first effort at putting a teacher in space turned into an unmitigated disaster: teacher Christa McAuliffe was aboard the Challenger, which broke apart during launch and killed all aboard in January 1986, side-tracking the entire U.S. space program for years — and the teachers in space program for even longer.
Morgan was McAuliffe’s backup for the Challenger flight. It would have been tempting, surely, for her to turn in her astronaut wings and settle back into a nice, safe classroom.
But, Morgan stuck with it. She continued to train, continued to represent NASA to schools and educators, continued to talk up the importance of space education.
More than 20 years later, she’s now ready to call class to order from the space station, 140 miles above the earth (learn how to participate here).
Words like patience, perseverance, and determination can easily be overused in motivational speeches, but Morgan can testify that persisting in those values can get you more than a speaking gig — they can take you out of this world.
Professor of Old Testament at Campbell University Divinity School in Buies Creek, North Carolina, and the Contributing Editor and Curriculum Writer at Good Faith Media.