Teaching from Space: NASA's Educator Astronauts

After the Challenger tragedy, NASA replaced Teacher’s in Space with Educator Astronauts. Instead of recruiting private citizens to fly, they trained mission specialists that had educator backgrounds to be astronauts. In 2004, NASA selected Ricky Arnold, Dottie Metcalf-Lindenberger and Joe Acaba.

Do you have a favorite teacher? Do you think they could be the next educator astronaut? What role do educator astronauts have in the future of space travel?