NASA introduces new group of 11 astronauts

CHANTILLY, Va. -- NASA on Thursday introduced a new class of 11 astronauts, a group that includes three teachers who are giving up the classroom for the chance to fly into space.

The teachers, selected from a field of more than 1,000 applicants, will live, work and train with more than 100 other astronauts at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. The new astronauts could be scheduled for space flights by 2009.

No teacher has flown on a shuttle since Christa McAuliffe, who died in the 1986 Challenger explosion. The teacher who served as McAuliffe's alternate on that flight, Barbara Morgan, has been training in Houston since 1998 and is scheduled for a 2006 space flight.

The introduction of the 11 astronauts comes as the space program is in flux, with shuttle missions grounded since Columbia disintegrated on re-entry last year. Shuttle flights will not resume until at least 2005, and the fleet will be permanently grounded in 2010 to redirect efforts for a return to the moon by 2020.

Despite the possibility of a protracted wait for the opportunity to join a flight, the new astronauts, who were introduced at the Smithsonian Institution's Air and Space Museum annex in Chantilly, said they couldn't pass up the chance.

'Standing in the right line'

"I'm standing in the right line at least," said Richard Arnold of Berlin, Md., who most recently taught at the American International School in Bucharest, Romania.

If things go well and astronauts indeed return to the moon by 2020, the astronauts in the current class could at that time be among the corps' most senior members, NASA spokeswoman Melissa Mathews said.

Arnold, who was in the process of submitting his application when Columbia broke apart, said he discussed the dangers with his wife and decided the risks were worth the reward.

"I've always encouraged my students to follow their dreams," he said. "I hope I'm setting the same example for my kids."

Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger, 28, of Vancouver, Wash., first learned of NASA's teacher program as she searched the Internet seeking an answer to a student's question: "How do you go to the bathroom in space?"

While she said she has enjoyed teaching science at Hudson's Bay High School, she is "looking forward to teaching in a different way" through the educator-astronaut program.

Another new astronaut, Dr. Robert Satcher, will help NASA research why astronauts suffer bone and muscle degeneration during long periods in outer space. Satcher, 38, of Oak Park, Ill., is the nephew of former U.S. Surgeon General Dr. David Satcher and an assistant professor of orthopedic surgery at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

The new group of 11 is the smallest class of astronauts since the shuttle program began. They join a corps of about 100, officials said.

Last year, when the astronaut corps swelled to 144, the agency's inspector general warned too many astronauts were waiting around for their chance to fly, and that the agency was overly optimistic in its prediction of the number of future shuttle flights. The size of the corps has since dropped because of retirements and attrition.

Mathews said the new class takes the inspector general's finding into account, and provides a new mix of skills and specialties to round out the corps.

The other astronauts introduced Thursday were teacher Joseph Acaba, 36, of Dunnellon, Fla.; Thomas Marshburn, 43, of Houston; Navy Lt. Cmdr. Christopher Cassidy, 34, of Norfolk; Army Maj. R. Shane Kimbrough, 36, of Houston; Jose Hernandez, 41, of Houston; Shannon Walker, 38, of Houston; and pilots Air Force Maj. James Dutton, 35, of Eugene, Ore.; and Marine Corps Maj. Randolph Bresnik, 36, of San Diego.

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