Editing Teacher in Space Project (section)

==NASA programs==
TISP was announced by President [[Ronald Reagan]] on August 27, 1984. Not members of [[NASA Astronaut Corps|NASA's Astronaut Corps]], the teachers would fly as [[Payload Specialist]]s and return to their classrooms after flight. More than 40,000 applications were mailed to interested teachers while 11,000 teachers sent completed applications to NASA.  Each application included a potential lesson that would be taught from space while on the Space Shuttle.  The applications were sorted and then sent to the various State Departments of Education, who were then responsible for narrowing down their state applicants to a final set of two each. These 114 applicants were notified of their selections and were gathered together for further selection processes down to ten finalists.  These were then trained for a time, and in 1985 NASA selected [[Christa McAuliffe]] to be the first teacher in space, with [[Barbara Morgan]] as her backup. McAuliffe was a high school social studies teacher from Concord, New Hampshire.<ref>{{cite web|title=Astronaut bio S. Christa Corrigan Mcauliffe Teacher In Space Participant (Deceased) |url=http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/mcauliffe.html |work=jsc.nasa.gov |publisher=NASA |access-date=3 November 2013 |date=April 2007}}</ref> She planned to teach two 15-minute lessons from the Space Shuttle.<ref>{{cite web |title=Christa's Lost Lessons |url=http://www.challenger.org/resources/christas-story/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131104080630/http://www.challenger.org/resources/christas-story/ |archive-date=4 November 2013 |access-date=3 November 2013 |work=Space Educator's Handbook (OMB/NASA Report #S677) |via=challenger.org}}</ref>

McAuliffe died in the [[Space Shuttle Challenger disaster|Space Shuttle ''Challenger'' disaster]] ([[STS-51-L]]) on January 28, 1986.<ref>{{cite web|title=About Mission 51-L "Teacher In Space"|url=http://www.challenger.org/about-us/mission-51-l/|publisher=challenger.org|access-date=3 November 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131104173819/http://www.challenger.org/about-us/mission-51-l/|archive-date=4 November 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |author=Hart |first=Kevin |date=28 January 2011 |title=Twenty-Five Years Later, McAuliffe's Legacy Endures |url=http://neatoday.org/2011/01/28/twenty-five-years-later-mcauliffe%E2%80%99s-legacy-endures/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130917133555/http://neatoday.org/2011/01/28/twenty-five-years-later-mcauliffe%E2%80%99s-legacy-endures/ |archive-date=17 September 2013 |access-date=3 November 2013 |publisher=National Education Association}}</ref> After the accident, Reagan spoke on national television and assured the nation that the Teacher in Space program would continue. "We'll continue our quest in space", he said. "There will be more shuttle flights and more shuttle crews and, yes, more volunteers, more civilians, more teachers in space. Nothing ends here; our hopes and our journeys continue."<ref>{{cite news | first=Ronald | last=Reagan | title=Address to the nation on the Challenger disaster | date=1986-01-28 | publisher=Office of the President | url =http://www.reaganlibrary.com/reagan/speeches/challenger.asp | access-date = 2007-08-13 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070927225128/http://www.reaganlibrary.com/reagan/speeches/challenger.asp <!-- Bot retrieved archive --> |archive-date = 2007-09-27}}</ref> However, NASA decided in 1990 that spaceflight was still too dangerous to risk the lives of civilian teachers, and eliminated the Teacher in Space project. Morgan returned to teaching in Idaho and later became a mission specialist on [[STS-118]].

===Educator Astronaut Project===
{{Main|Educator Astronaut Project}}

[[File:Morgan giving lecture.png|thumb|Barbara Morgan, Mission Specialist and backup for the Teacher in Space Project, speaks to an audience of students and media during a January 2007 demonstration at Space Center Houston.]]
In January 1998, NASA replaced the Teacher In Space project with the Educator Astronaut Project. Instead of training teachers for five months as [[Payload Specialist]]s who would return to the classroom, the Educator Astronaut program required selectees to give up their teaching careers, move to Houston, and become [[Mission Specialist]]s (full-time NASA astronauts).

The first three Educator Astronauts were selected in October 2004: [[Joseph Acaba]], [[Richard R. Arnold|Richard Arnold]] and [[Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger]]. Acaba and Arnold flew aboard [[STS-119]] in March 2009, and Metcalf-Lindenburger on [[STS-131]] in April 2010.

Although many sources including some NASA ones incorrectly refer to [[Barbara Morgan]] (who flew on [[STS-118]] in August 2007) as the first Educator Astronaut, she was actually selected as a standard mission specialist in 1998, before the Educator Astronaut Project was in place.<ref>Michael Griffin, NASA TV: STS-118 Post-Landing briefing</ref>