Shuttle launch one giant leap for teacherkind

"She just loved ... the challenge of teaching in an exotic and wonderful place," Clay says.

But it was in McCall, the former logging town of 2,500, that she would spend most of her teaching years. Friends and colleagues there describe Barbara's teaching style and rapport.

"She was like the pied-piper," says Peter Johnson, a friend of the Morgans for 20 years.

Fellow teacher Kathy Phelan describes a classic Barbara technique: When a child acted up, she made it a lesson in classroom citizenship. "She realized you can't really teach until you have all the students working together," Ms. Phelan says.

Barbara created the same adventures for her students that she'd later carve out for herself. After a fire consumed a chunk of nearby forest, she sectioned off an acre for her class to study, teaching the signs of ecological recovery.

Amy Kulesza, Mr. Kulesza's daughter, was in Barbara's classes from 1980 to 1982. "You didn't just learn; you experienced things," she says – whether that was making sweaters with a spindle, painting a mural on the wall that faced the classroom windows, or sipping hot chocolate at Star Nights. "To this day, I can point out constellations to my friends' kids," she says.

But no field trip or lesson plan could prepare the Morgans for Jan. 28, 1986, when they watched the Challenger take off. "She knew something was really, really wrong right away," says Clay.

Barbara went straight into crew quarters where the Challenger astronauts' families were, Clay says; she was especially concerned with helping their children. Eventually, the Morgans flew home to Houston. At 3 a.m., they stepped off a NASA jet – and found hundreds of NASA workers waiting. "It was the most amazing thing I've ever seen," says Clay. All night, a NASA employee sat outside their apartment in case they needed support.

This comforting of crew members' grieving families was something Barbara would do years later, after the Columbia shuttle accident in 2003. In fact, Barbara had been scheduled to go up in that very shuttle on its next mission.

Setting an example for children dealing with tragedy was vital to Barbara. For months after the Challenger explosion, in which Ms. McAuliffe perished, she traveled the country, talking with children about the accident, which many of them had watched on live television. She also picked up McAuliffe's speaking engagements. The call of teaching brought her back to McCall within the year, and the Morgans soon had two sons. Clay calls their time in crew quarters the "tipping point" in their decision to have kids: "We saw how important children were to the adults; it was so obvious and profound."

But Barbara had not given up on space, not even when NASA barred civilians from the shuttle. In 1998, the four Morgans pulled up their roots and moved to Houston so she could continue her training – this time, as a full-fledged astronaut. She went to work early, came home late, and studied training manuals until after midnight. Fellow astronaut Ellen Baker, who worked with Barbara in the 1980s and again when Barbara returned to NASA in 1998, noticed Barbara's passion and commitment. Barbara was invited to join the Endeavor crew.

The Challenger incident had changed her perspective on her dream, Clay says. Barbara would "show kids that are watching us, what adults do after bad times." She's also hoping to provide an example of teachers as explorers.

Once the shuttle reaches the space station, Barbara will operate the robot arm to attach a new piece of the solar-power system. She will also use downlinks to answer questions from kids at three US locations. Back on Earth, Barbara will travel and give talks, many at schools.

Whatever her next life venture is, her friend, Mr. Johnson predicts, "I don't think we've seen Barb make her full mark on the world yet."

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