If I can get some student interested in science, if I can show members of the general public what's going on up there in the space program, then my job's been done.

I cannot join the space program and restart my life as an astronaut, but this opportunity to connect my abilities as an educator with my interests in history and space is a unique opportunity to fulfill my early fantasies.

NASA was going to pick a public school teacher to go into space, observe and make a journal about the space flight, and I am a teacher who always dreamed of going up into space.

I will have a one-hour program called the Mission Watch, where I will describe details of the mission and give additional information about the lessons from space.

My job in space will be to observe and write a journal. I am also going to be teaching a class for students on earth about life in space and on the space shuttle and conducting experiments.

There was a space program before there was integrated circuits.