First Lady calls fellow teacher Barbara Morgan

First Lady Laura Bush called Endeavour mission specialist and educator astronaut Barbara Morgan today to wish her the best on her long awaited launch.

Morgan, who served as back-up to Teacher-In-Space Christa McAuliffe, is scheduled to blast off at 6:36 p.m. Wednesday here at Kennedy Space Center -- almost 22 years after McAuliffe and six other astronauts were lost in the 1986 Challenger accident.

Here, in its entirety, is the statement from the White House Press Secretary Sally McDonough:

This morning, Mrs. Laura Bush called Barbara Morgan, an astronaut and former teacher who will travel to space for the first time on the flight of the Space Shuttle Endeavour to the International Space Station.

Mrs. Bush expressed congratulations from one schoolteacher to another and noted that she and the President appreciate Ms. Morgan's commitment to America's space program, to teaching, and to students. Mrs. Bush concluded the call noting that Americans - and lots of excited teachers and students - will be watching the mission with a lot of pride.

Ms. Morgan served as the "Teacher in Space" alternate to Christa McAuliffe for the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger mission. Following the Challenger tragedy, Morgan continued her ties with NASA and eventually left her job as an elementary school teacher in Idaho to become a full-time astronaut in 1998.

The Space Shuttle Endeavor is scheduled to launch August 8, 2007.

You can follow the countdown and launch of Endeavour and its crew at Florida Today's space blog -- The Flame Trench -- at http://www.floridatoday.com/floridatoday/blogs/spaceteam/. The newspaper will be webcasting NASA TV coverage of the mission around-the-clock. Check it out.