Endeavour heads for space station with teacher on board

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Florida (CNN) -- Space shuttle Endeavour lifted off into the blue skies above Florida on Wednesday, its seven-member crew headed for the international space station to perform assembly work, repairs and deliver supplies.

The shuttle lifted off as scheduled at 6:36 p.m. ET. NASA saw four or five pieces of debris fall off during the launch, but they didn't have enough speed to cause any concern, said Bill Gerstenmaier, Associate Administrator of Space Operations.

"The debris looks small, it didn't seem like anything hit anything, and if it did, it did not have enough velocity to do any damage. We will continue to review the data and continue to look at the pictures," Gerstenmaier said. Watch the liftoff »

NASA has been extremely watchful for any damage to a shuttle's external tank or heat shield after the 2003 Columbia disaster.

The Endeavour crew -- six Americans and one Canadian -- includes Barbara Morgan, a former Idaho teacher who was selected as teacher Christa McAuliffe's backup for the doomed Challenger mission 21 years ago. See photos of the launch taken by iReporters »

The families of several Challenger astronauts watched Wednesday's launch.

"I'm really excited about going up and doing our jobs and doing them well," Morgan said in a NASA statement.

"I'm excited about experiencing the whole spaceflight, seeing Earth from space for the very first time and experiencing weightlessness and what that's all about. I am excited about seeing what it's like living and working onboard the international space station."

Morgan is one of five mission specialists among the crew, who will continue assembly of the space station, deliver cargo and repair a control moment gyroscope -- a spinning wheel used to control the station's orientation. Learn about the mission »

Endeavour will also be the first shuttle to try out a new system designed to let it use electrical power from the station. NASA said this will allow Endeavour to stay in space for an extended period of time while docked to the station.

The mission is set to last 11 days and will include three spacewalks, but NASA said mission managers could extend it by three days and add an additional spacewalk after the station-shuttle power transfer system is activated and checked.

Wednesday's launch was the end of a long road to space for the 55-year-old Morgan. She trained alongside McAuliffe -- who would have been the first teacher in space -- and the Challenger crew at Johnson Space Center in 1985. Challenger exploded 73 seconds after liftoff on January 28, 1986, killing the entire seven-person crew.

The tragedy forced an immediate suspension of the shuttle program, which remained on hold more than two years. After the explosion, Morgan assumed the duties of teacher-in-space designee, going on the visits that McAuliffe would have made, talking to children and teachers nationwide in the months after the tragedy.

In the fall of 1986, she returned to the classroom but continued to work with NASA's Education Division and the Teacher in Space Program.

After being selected to be an astronaut in 1998, Morgan left the classroom to report to Johnson Space Center for training. In 2002, she became the first educator to become a mission specialist astronaut, according to NASA. After completing her training, she has carried out technical duties and worked in Mission Control.

"She has endured more media attention and public scrutiny than most politicians or celebrities have to bear, and through it all she has stayed true to her beliefs," Ed Campion, news chief at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, wrote regarding Morgan in an e-mail to friends about the Endeavour launch. The e-mail is posted on NASA's Web site.

"She could have made herself out to be a victim or tried to make money in some tell-all book or just walked away and tried to resume a quiet, normal life, but she believed in what the teacher-in-space concept could do. She recognized the potential the program had for inspiring youth. She has carried that promise for the last 7,861 days."

First lady Laura Bush called Morgan on Tuesday to express congratulations "from one schoolteacher to another," according to a White House statement, and expressed her appreciation for Morgan's commitment to the space program, to teaching and to students. E-mail to a friend

CNN's Marsha Walton and Peter Dykstra contributed to this report.

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