Teacher aboard by Claudia Sonea

Space Shuttle Orbiter Endeavour was constructed in order to replace Challenger which was lost in an accident in 1986 and because refitting Enterprise was too expensive. Rockwell International spent $2.2 billion USD constructing it and used structural spares from the construction of Discovery and Atlantis. The name comes from a ship commanded by James Cook in the 18th century, HM Bark Endeavour. It is spelled in the British English manner to honor the Command Module of Apollo 15. Its latest Orbiter Major Modification period ended in October 2005 and is now on his way to International Space Station, STS-118. The crew is formed by Commander- Naval Scott Kelly (43 years old from Orange, New Jersey; worked as Test pilot, head of NASA's Moscow office), Lt. Col. Charles Hobaugh- pilot, Richard "Rick" Mastracchio- flight engineer and lead spacewalker, Dafydd "Dave" Williams- Spacewalker and three rookies: Tracy Caldwell and Col. Benjamin "Alvin" Drew- mission specialists, Barbara Morgan- a 55 years old teacher that will be the education mission specialist. Except the rookies all the others have already been in space. The teacher trained twenty years ago as a backup for the teacher-astronaut on Challenger in Space Christa McAuliffe. The ship mentioned previously blew up shortly after launch. Barbara Morgan's aspirations are to be a classroom teacher, but this space mission is way beyond her imagination and it will go down in history. Someday children will learn about her. Let's wish them all good luck and say a pray to return home without any incidents.

related story: http://uk.news.yahoo.com/rtrs/20070808/tts-uk-space-shuttle-crew-ca02f96_1.html

by Claudia Sonea for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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