KENNEDY SPACE CENTER (AP) -- Former teacher Laura Bush reached out today to astronaut-educator Barbara Morgan.

The White House says the first lady called to express her congratulations from one teacher to another, adding she knows a lot of teachers and students will be watching the shuttle Endeavour's mission with pride.

NASA's education chief says Morgan was thrilled to get the call from Mrs. Bush, a former school teacher and librarian. Joyce Winterton says "once you're a teacher, you're always a teacher."

Morgan was Christa McAuliffe's backup in the original teacher-in-space program. She went back to teaching in Idaho after the Challenger disaster in 1986, but returned to NASA as a full-time astronaut in 1998.

(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)