Astronaut's early education was on Fresno State campus

Educator astronaut Barbara Morgan, a Fresno native orbiting Earth aboard the space shuttle Endeavour, received her earliest formal education on the California State University, Fresno campus.

She attended kindergarten at the Fresno State Lab School, starting to develop her lifelong quest for knowledge while being “studied” by teachers-to-be honing their skills in early childhood education.

The Lab School has been succeeded by the Joyce M. Huggins Early Childhood Education Center housed in the Kremen School of Education and Human Development. The center gives students, teachers and other professionals training, demonstration and research opportunities in education, child development, marriage, child and family counseling and related areas.

Morgan, who is 55, attended Bullard and Hoover High schools in Fresno, then Stanford University and Notre Dame de Namur (in Belmont) before becoming a science teacher in Idaho and competing with other teachers for a space shuttle flight.

She was the backup astronaut to teacher-in-space Christa McAuliffe in 1986 when the shuttle Challenger exploded after liftoff, killing McAuliffe and the other crew members. The teacher-in-space program was shelved after the tragedy, but Morgan's enthusiasm for space travel didn't wane.

She moved to Houston in 1998 to train as an astronaut and at 3:36 p.m. (PDT) Wednesday, July 8, Morgan rode Endeavour into orbit.

For updates on Endeavour’s mission, visit: www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html