Rutan to be inducted into tech council hall of fame
Photo by MIKE SATREN Burt Rutan raises a toast in 2015 with his wife, Tonya, looking on after the successful first flight of SkiGull, an amphibious aircraft.
BOISE — Burt Rutan, aerospace designer and engineer, and Barbara Morgan, former NASA Astronaut and educator,are the 2017 inductees into the Idaho Technology Council Hall of Fame sponsored by Hewlett Packard. Morgan is the first female inductee to the Hall of Fame.
“We could not have picked two more fitting Hall of Fame inductees for this year’s celebration. As the first teacher-astronaut to complete a space shuttle mission, Barbara Morgan has been a tireless advocate of STEM education. Her influence has inspired countless students to pursue STEM careers,” said Jay Larsen, founder and president of the ITC, in a news release. “Burt Rutan is the perfect complement for the induction. His contributions to aerospace designs changed the way business mixes with air and space travel. Both were obvious additions to the Hall of Fame.”
Retired aeronautical engineer Rutan, of Kootenai County, began his career with the U.S. Air Force before starting his own business designing world-renown space and aircraft. His career includes several firsts, including the design of the Rutan Voyager, the first airplane to fly around the world without stopping for fuel and SpaceShipOne—the first privately funded spacecraft to enter the realm of space twice within a two-week period.
Rutan has been included on Time Magazine’s “100 most influential people in the world” and has worked throughout his career’s entirety to revolutionize the way consumers think about and experience space travel.
Morgan, a former teacher in Idaho’s McCall-Donnelly School District, became the first educator in space when the shuttle Endeavour launched Aug. 8, 2007 on an 11-day mission to the International Space Station.
Morgan is committed to mentoring and preparing students for successful careers in STEM. In 2008, a year after her mission to the space station, she joined Boise State University as a distinguished educator. In her time, she’s provided vision and leadership to K-12 STEM teachers and higher education students throughout Idaho.
Morgan and Rutan will be inducted into the ITC Hall of Fame during the 2017 Hall of Fame Induction scheduled for Oct. 24 at the Boise Centre.