Former McCall teacher Barbara Morgan's trip into space has been put on hold for a bit longer due to delays in the space shuttle flight ahead of hers.
Morgan's shuttle mission had been scheduled to launch at the end of June, but that date has now be set back to Aug. 9 at the earliest, according to NASA.
The space shuttle Atlantis suffered damaged in late February when a severe thunderstorm caused visible divots in the foam insulation on the shuttle's giant external fuel tank.
Repairs to the tank have pushed back the launch of Atlantis to no sooner than June 8, NASAs Web site said.
Morgan's 14-day mission, on the shuttle Endeavor, is planned to fly to the International Space Station in orbit over the Earth.
Plans call for the six-person crew to continue building the space station by delivering a large truss segment.
Morgan will be the first astronaut to fly as an educator astronaut, a new class of astronauts created when she joined NASA full-time in 1998 and moved to Houston with her family.
Morgan had been scheduled to fly on the shuttle Columbia in 2003, but her flight and all other missions were postponed when the Columbia burned up on reentry on Feb. l, 2003. Seven astronauts died in that incident.
If Morgan does fly into space this summer, it will come more than 21 years after she was named NASAs Teacher in Space following another shuttle disaster the explosion of the shuttle Challenger in January 1986.
The Challenger disaster, just like the Columbia tragedy, killed all seven astronauts aboard.
