By Robyn Williams
For over an hour, retired astronaut Barbara Morgan regaled the overflow crowd at the Weiser Public Library with her experiences as a mission specialist on the shuttle Endeavor. Morgan stopped by the library on Saturday morning at library director Timbra Long’s invitation to talk about the work she completed during nearly two weeks on the shuttle and the International Space Station.
Morgan was part of a team tasked with using the shuttle’s remote manipulator arm to modify the structures supporting the station’s photovoltaic arrays, or solar cells. But she also related more prosaic stories about how it felt to sleep in a weightless environment, the camaraderie between the multinational ISS crew of scientists and technicians, and how they learned to manage a troublesome trash disposal problem. She followed her talk with a lively Q&A session with the audience, and mentioned more than once she’d thoroughly enjoyed her visit with the Weiser library patrons.
