Former Teacher Gets the Idaho Medal of Achievement

It's the highest civilian award that and Idahoan can receive.

Barbara Morgan is a former teacher in McCall, and oh-by-the-way an astronaut. And she's been recognized by Governor Butch Otter with a prestigious honor.

Governor Otter announced on Monday during the State of the State address that Barbara Morgan earned the Idaho Medal of Achievement after being nominated by the public, reviewed by a five-member committee, and ultimately picked by the governor.

KTVB says Morgan trained as a NASA mission specialist and flew on the Endeavor space shuttle in 2007.  She came to NASA as part of the Teachers in Space program in 1984 and trained alongside Christa McAuliffe, who died in the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion.  Morgan was McAuliffe's backup, but didn't make it to space in the 80's because the Teachers in Space program was shut down before she had the chance.  Morgan broke ground as the first teacher to travel to space though in 2007, as a full-fledged NASA-trained astronaut.

If you've just seen the movie Hidden Figures and you're all about astronauts and the unsung heroes at NASA right now, this is fun news!  Congrats to another pretty amazing Idaho role model.