HOUSTON - Long before NASA found damage on the heat tiles of its space shuttle Endeavour, the space agency was playing down the appearance of teacher-turned-astronaut Barbara Morgan on the orbiter’s STS-118 flight.

Given that Morgan, whom NASA first chose as the backup to its first Teacher in Space Christa McAuliffe in 1985 before the Challenger accident, has waited and worked through 22 years and two shuttle disasters to fly, it seemed like a public affairs coup to finally launch her into space. Especially during a roller coaster year that has seen a now-former astronaut’s arrest, solid rocket booster train wrecks, a shocking murder-suicide at the Johnson Space Center here and a freakish hail storm that pushed the entire year’s schedule of shuttle flights three months to the right.

And yet, Morgan’s role was somewhat muted going into last week’s launch (though Mission Control did mark her space arrival with a glib, “For Barbara Morgan and her crew, class is in session.”) and even more so now as Endeavour’s tile damage overshadows her space presence.
It is both perplexing and understandable at the same time.

Through the karma of shuttle flight scheduling, Morgan’s flight falls outside the school year, limiting the agency’s education reach to schools across the nation.

And since her assignment to STS-118 in late 2002 and the Columbia accident a year later, NASA has shifted its shuttle missions to make completion of the International Space Station a priority, so construction - not education - takes center stage.

Endeavour’s commander Scott Kelly said before flight what he thought of Morgan as an astronaut first, who happened to once work as teacher. And that makes sense too, since what he really needs on a busy construction flight, now extended with an extra fourth spacewalk, is a spaceship full of steely-eyed spaceflyers.

But there is still a part, deep down, that would like to see a bit more pomp.

Perhaps we’ll get it today, with Morgan’s first of three broadcasts to students on Earth. She and her STS-118 crewmates are expected to talk about their spaceflight, answer questions and demonstrate orbital living at about 5:09 p.m. EDT (2109 GMT) for students at the Discovery Center of Idaho in Boise live on NASA TV.

So tune in and watch. It should be educational.