factors, as you are already aware, such as cost and schedules, would have to be considered in making a decision. Sincerely, James M. Beggs Administrator." Thanks to Mathias, the space shuttle Enterprise prototype was flown, in June 1983, atop the 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) during the 35th Paris International Air and Space Show. The "Americans" fenced off the Space craft until the night of the opening, when they flew it around the city at 3.000 feet for all of Paris to see. It flew over Roland Garros during the French Open. John McEnroe, who was playing in the quarter finals, stopped playing, fell to knees, put up his hands and saluted the Space Shuttle while the crowd cheered in a standing ovation. In December 1982, during a luncheon in Washington, Mihlon and Le Grelle came up with an idea to make the U.S. space program popular again (the launches of the Space Shuttles being relegated to the eighth page of The New York Times, for example) and to convince the American taxpayer that the 211 billion dollar project was worthwhile. The idea was to send a female schoolteacher on the Shuttle, from which she would teach children a lesson from space, a lesson that would be relayed to all the schools in the United States via the public television network PBS. Mihlon and Le Grelle discussed the idea with Mathias, who enthusiastically sold the idea to Jim Beggs and the White House. That is how Mathias originated the Teacher in Space Project (TISP). The project was announced by President Reagan on August 27, 1984. Not being members of NASA's Astronaut Corps, the teacher and other civilian members of the crew would fly as Payload Specialists and return to their civilian jobs after flight. More than 40,000 applications were mailed to interested teachers while 11,000 teachers sent completed applications to NASA. Each application included a potential lesson that would be taught from space while on the Space Shuttle and 114 applicants were notified of their selections and were gathered together for further a further selection process that narrowed the contenders down to ten finalists. These were then trained for a time, and in 1985 NASA selected Christa McAuliffe to be the first teacher in space, with Barbara Morgan as her backup. McAuliffe was a high school social studies teacher from Concord, New Hampshire. She planned to teach two 15-minute lessons