Barbara Morgan Status: Retired 11/28/1951 – Nationality: American Type: Government Agency: National Aeronautics and Space Administration Barbara Radding Morgan is an American teacher and a former NASA astronaut. She participated in the Teacher in Space program as backup to Christa McAuliffe for the 1986 ill-fated STS-51-L mission of the Space Shuttle Challenger. She then trained as a Mission Specialist, and flew on STS-118 in August 2007.