In an earlier Science update (see related story), I described how the requirements for space travel were changing. Instead of being limited only to professional astronauts, regular folks (if you count millionaires as being "regular") are now strapping themselves into Russian Soyuz spacecraft and blasting off.

South Africa's Mark Shuttleworth, the world's second self-financed space tourist, returned from a 10-day trip to the International Space Station last week. He says that he had a blast and that he'd even like to go again.

Meanwhile more people are now getting in line to buy a ticket on a Soyuz.

Lori Garver, a former NASA Headquarters Policy Administrator, is trying to raise funds to be what she calls "Astromom." Meanwhile, Lance Bass, a member of the band 'NSync, is also trying to raise the $20 million needed to get a seat into space. Another seat aboard a Russian Soyuz is available this Fall. If Lance Bass gets to fly, at age 23, he would be the youngest person to ever fly in space. Since six months of training is required to fly as a passenger in a Soyuz, we should know soon whether Lance or Lori will be on that flight.

While the line at the Soyuz ticket office is starting to form, another one may be forming soon for rides on the Space Shuttle — in the classroom. Last month, NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe announced the return of the Teacher in Space program — now called the "Educator Mission Specialist" program. As we all recall, New Hampshire schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe perished when the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded in January 1986. Christa and her crew were honored at the opening of the film Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home which came out later that year.

Christa's backup was Idaho teacher Barbara Morgan. After years of training and waiting, Barbara became a full-fledged astronaut in 1998. This week, in hearings before the U.S. Senate, Sean O'Keefe said "Barbara Morgan will be the first. She won't be the last. This is an opportunity for a trained educator to go though the astronaut candidate program and to perform the range of mission requirements for all astronauts — but to view them though the prism of the eye of an educator. She will be our path blazer." The exact date of Barbara's flight is not yet known but is likely to be after 2004. NASA is expected to put out an announcement in the next year or so to start recruiting additional educators to fly in space.

Also in my earlier update, I recalled NASA's recruitment effort in the late 1970's wherein NASA sought to broaden the diversity of its astronaut corps to include women and minorities. To get the message out, they enlisted an individual whom many thought embodied the future of what the astronaut corps would come to represent: Nichelle Nichols, who portrayed Lt. Uhura on the bridge of the Enterprise.

When the astronaut class of 1978 was announced it included three African-Americans and three women. One of the members of this class, Fred Gregory, who previously headed NASA's Office of Space Flight, was nominated this week by President Bush to be the Deputy Administrator of NASA — Sean O'Keefe's "Number One." This is the senior-most position ever achieved in our nation's space program by a person of color. (Photo courtesy NASA)

When I asked Fred what impact Nichols had on him, he told me, "Nichelle Nichols had a significant influence on my decision to apply to NASA. I saw her on TV standing in front of a 747 in her neat blue astronaut suit. She pointed a finger at me and said something like, 'I want YOU to apply for the Space Shuttle program.' I did and look where it led me!"

Another member of the 1978 astronaut class, Shannon Lucid (who holds the current record of 188 continuous days in space — the most spent by any American) was chosen earlier this year to be NASA's Chief Scientist.

Astronaut Bill Readdy, currently Associate Administrator for Space Flight, who was on the STS-79 mission which brought Shannon home from her record-breaking stay on Russia's Mir, tells me that for him, Star Trek "sets a vision of the future and has always posed interesting challenges and problems that are only overcome with teamwork and innovative thinking."

NASA's Sean O'Keefe has already made it very clear that education and recruiting young people is going to be an important theme in all that NASA does. This past week, O'Keefe said "the most extraordinary commodity we have are the amazing folks that are involved in what NASA does. However, we have a very 'mature workforce.' There are three times as many people over 60 than there are under 30. We need to fix that situation."

Who knows, maybe Mr. O'Keefe might consider the idea of starting an academy of some sort — one that provides training for a new "star fleet" — so as to recruit more young people to work at NASA.

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