As full-time, fully-trained crew members, a goal for this new category of astronaut will be to encourage students to pursue careers requiring concentrations in math and science, which in turn will help the United States maintain a robust space program in the future.

"The reaction is phenomenal," NASA spokesman Dwayne Brown said Thursday. "The excitement is building every minute."

Even if the current rate diminishes between now and the April 30 application deadline, NASA could easily wind up with a list of more than 25,000 teachers from which to select their finalists.

Following the application deadline, a panel of NASA officials and education specialists will screen the thousands of applicants and come up with a list of about 200-300 potential candidates. That list will be forwarded to the astronaut selection panel at the Johnson Space Center.

From that list between 30 to 60 teachers will be invited to Houston this Fall to participate in a one-week-long interview process that includes medical screening and physical tests.

Brown said the new educator astronauts will be announced in early 2004.

Morgan, meanwhile, remains scheduled to fly aboard shuttle Columbia during an International Space Station assembly mission now targeted to fly Nov. 13.

She was the backup for NASA's first teacher in space, Christa McAuliffe, who was lost in the 1986 Challenger disaster.