Feet on Earth, Head in the Clouds

Of all the wonders and surprises Barbara Morgan has experienced since reaching orbit 13 days ago, nothing compared to the biggest jolt of all: coming home.

Gravity did not sit pretty on the pale but happy teacher-turned-astronaut, who just a few hours after landing already was laying plans for taking her experiences into the classroom.

First though, there will be a reunion with her family and hopefully a good night’s sleep to shake off the dizziness that often comes to those who breach the bonds of gravity and then re-subject themselves to its unbending force.

The first clue that Barbara was finding Earth harder to adapt to than space came about an hour after Endeavour’s flawless touchdown at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida midday Tuesday. Her six crewmates climbed out of the medical van to take a short walk around the shuttle and greet the dozens of NASA officials and friends who had gathered at the runway to welcome them home. Barb stayed beind.

"This was Barbara's first flight. She was feeling just a little bit under the weather,” NASA administrator Michael Griffin, who was among the officials greeting the crew at the runway, told reporters.”

“She was doing just fine, but she wasn’t able to stand up and walk around out in Florida heat. Having stood up and walked around out there in the Florida heat, I was about ready to join her,” he added.

Four hours later Barbara mustered her resolve, tucked her hair inside a red baseball cap and fixed her head as straight as possible to join her crewmates for a short press conference.

“My first plan is to get rid of the room spinning, and that should happen pretty soon,” Barbara said. " It's actually pretty interesting if you could be in my body.”

Obviously struggling for balance, Barb gutted it through the briefing, closing her eyes periodically and turning her head as little as possible, but clearly still entranced by the experience of being in space.

I asked her if she felt changed in any way. “It’s a great sense of pride to be able to be involved in a human endeavor that takes us all a little bit farther," she said. "When you look down and see our Earth ... and you realize what we are trying to do as a human race, it's pretty profound."