NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe will announce today that Barbara Morgan, the back-up teacher in space to Christa McAuliffe, will finally get to fly.

Dan Goldin viscerally and vociferously opposed civilians in space (except for corrupt Senators), and refused to reinstate the teacher-in-space program (it was suspended after the Challenger accident, in which McAuliffe was killed). Morgan is finally flying because she was formally accepted as a member of the astronaut corps, and has been training for several years. However, I suspect that she’ll still try to get in some teaching during her flight.