COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. ? Sixteen years after the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger ended its teacher-in-space program, NASA on Friday said it was launching a new effort to put educators in space, perhaps by 2004.

Barbara Morgan, 50, a former third-grade teacher from Idaho, will be the first of a new corps of education mission specialists who will accompany astronauts on shuttle flights, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration announced.

Morgan

Morgan worked and trained with Christa McAuliffe, the New Hampshire teacher killed along with six other astronauts in the 1986 Challenger disaster. Since 1998, Morgan has been training at Johnson Space Center near Houston; within 18 months, she will be ready to go into space, officials said.

“The time has come for NASA to complete the mission to send an educator to space,” said the agency’s new administrator, Sean O’Keefe.

The new NASA program is ambitious. Instead of proving a private citizen could be sent safely into space the goal on the Challenger mission the aim is to make teachers regular members of shuttle crews.

“This is not a one-shot deal,” O’Keefe said.

The teachers’ job will be to translate the work being done in space into materials that can “excite, inspire, and motivate kids” to pursue in-depth studies in math, science and technology and restore interest in space exploration, O’Keefe said.

“This is a great leap for science education, the ultimate field trip, a way to bring scientific exploration directly within the realm of experience that kids can relate to,” said Gerry Wheeler, executive director of the National Science Teachers Assn. “And Barbara Morgan is a perfect role model, especially for girls who are interested in science.”

“She’s a remarkable person who is intensely passionate about whatever she is doing and who has worked for years to keep the dream of a teacher going into space alive,” said Linda Pittenger of McCall, Idaho, a teacher whose daughter Erin was once in Morgan’s class.

Morgan, who was on duty relaying instructions from NASA to the International Space Station, was not available for comment Friday.

Education will become a “core mission element” for NASA, similar to scientific discovery, said O’Keefe. A program to recruit teacher-astronauts will be developed with the Department of Education.