| Teacher in Space Project | |
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Logo of the Teacher in Space Project |
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| Duration | 1984-1990 |
| Goals | Spur student interest in mathematics, science, and space exploration |
| Achieved | Launched Christa McAuliffe on STS-51-L; killed during launch in the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster |
| Organizer | NASA |
| Related programs | Educator Astronaut Project |
The Teacher in Space Project (TISP) was a NASA program announced by Ronald Reagan in 1984 designed to inspire students, honor teachers, and spur interest in mathematics, science, and space exploration.
The program was cancelled in 1990 following the death of its first participant, Christa McAuliffe, in the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster (STS-51-L) four years earlier.
Revivals of the program in the private sector have been attempted by private aerospace initiatives.
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TISP was announced by President Ronald Reagan on August 27, 1984. More than 11,000 teachers applied for the program;[1] in 1985, NASA selected Christa McAuliffe to be the first teacher in space with Barbara Morgan as her backup. McAuliffe died in the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster (STS-51-L) in 1986.
After the Challenger 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."[2] However, NASA eliminated the Teacher in Space project and other efforts to send private citizens to space. In the 1990s, the Teacher in Space project was replaced by the Educator Astronaut Project. Instead of training teachers for five months to be a spaceflight participant who would return to the classroom, the Educator Astronaut program required selectees to give up their teaching careers, move to Houston, and become full-time NASA employees.
Morgan was selected as a NASA Mission Specialist in January 1998, 12 years after McAuliffe's death. She was assigned to the crew of STS-118, aboard the orbiter Endeavour (the orbiter that replaced Challenger six years after the 1986 accident) which launched on August 8, 2007. Although it was once reported that Morgan would teach some of the same lessons that McAuliffe planned to teach more than 20 years before, Associated Press reports that "Morgan has no plans to give a lesson from space".[3] Shuttle commander Scott Kelly told a journalist, "I don’t have a teacher as a crewmember. I have a crewmember who used to be a teacher".[4] However, three weeks after the mission ended, she lectured a number of space education classes at Walt Disney World, lecturing lessons similar to what McAuliffe would have taught.[5]
In 2010, David Pettersen contacted teacher in space participants and made a re-connection between Christa McAuliffe's 1986 mission and modern-day learning. Pettersen then began a search to find more people who were involved with Christa McAuliffe's life after being inspired by McAuliffe's original mission. Pettersen has also stated that he has no intent to ever become an astronaut or a teacher, but will remain a symbol of the student side of public education.
By the mid 2000s (decade), the Teacher in Space project was revived in the private sector. The development of reusable, suborbital launch vehicles by commercial companies makes it possible for nonprofit groups to contemplate sending large numbers of teachers into space. In 2005, Teacher in Space candidate Pam Leestma, a second-grade teacher and cousin of Space Shuttle astronaut David Leestma, flew a training flight aboard a MiG-21 operated by X-Rocket, LLC.[6] In 2006, the Space Frontier Foundation announced a new project called "Teachers in Space".[7] The plural form indicated the greater number of teachers who might be involved. The Foundation believes that hundreds of teachers might fly in space every year and return to their classrooms to inspire the next generation.
Armadillo Aerospace, Masten Space Systems, PlanetSpace, Rocketplane Limited, Inc., and XCOR Aerospace have donated flights to the new Teachers in Space project.[8][9] Advisors to the new Teachers in Space project include SpaceShipOne builder and Ansari X-Prize winner Burt Rutan, X-Prize founder Peter Diamandis, Apollo astronaut Buzz Aldrin, and private astronaut and X-Prize sponsor Anousheh Ansari.[10]
The Space Frontier Foundation worked with the United States Rocket Academy to draft rules for a "pathfinder" competition to select the first Teachers in Space. The rules were announced at the Wirefly X PRIZE Cup Competition held at Holloman Air Force Base near Alamogordo, New Mexico the weekend of October 26–28.[11] Applications were accepted until November 4, 2008. On July 20, 2009, Teachers in Space announced the next group of teacher astronauts. The seven chosen teachers from around the U.S. are: Maureen Louis Adams, James Kuhl, Lanette Oliver, Stephen Heck, Rachael Manzer, Chantelle Rose, and Robert "Mike" Schmidt.[12] As the commercial flights begin, each of the "Pathfinder 7" will participate in a suborbital flight.
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