Jerry Loomer is watching the sky.

Space is this science teacher's passion, and even though he won't be aboard the space shuttle Endeavour, his heart will follow the shuttle's flight.

Loomer and more than 60 other finalists for the 1985 Teacher in Space program gathered to watch Barbara Morgan blast off into space Wednesday aboard the space shuttle Endeavour at Cape Canaveral, Fla.

Morgan was Christa McAuliffe's backup for the 1986 Challenger flight, the ill-fated shuttle mission that was meant to send NASA's first teacher into space. More than two decades later, that dream is finally being realized.

"We are so excited," Loomer said early Wednesday from nearby Cocoa Beach, Fla. "The anticipation is just rippling as we are waiting for the launch of our friend and fellow teacher."

Loomer has supported the Teacher in Space Project ever since President Reagan's 1984 announcement that the first private citizen in space would be an educator. A science teacher at Rapid City Central High School at the time, Loomer was one of only two South Dakotans selected as finalists to take that voyage.

He is elated at the project's revival under the new title Educator Astronaut Program, designed to bring the excitement of space flight and the importance of science, technology and mathematics to teachers and students.

Loomer applied for the Educator Astronaut Program and again was a finalist, landing in the top 1 percent of candidates.

Being only a finalist hasn't dampened his enthusiasm for the program, for NASA and for space exploration in general.

Probing those final frontiers benefits everybody, Loomer said, emphasizing that we wouldn't have cell phones if there were no satellites far above to carry their signals.

Teachers and their pupils, he said, are key to the space program's success.

"We need students to take science and math courses to become engineers and scientists to keep America at the forefront of education and acquisition of knowledge," he said.

A longtime teacher in Rapid City schools, Loomer now lives in Los Angeles and still is involved in the lives of students, managing a program called "The Edison Challenge," which rewards teams of middle school and high school students for projects about energy and the environment.

When asked if he wishes he were the one aboard the Endeavour, Loomer said without a moment's hesitation, "Absolutely."

But at the same time, he couldn't be happier for Morgan.

"We are so behind Barbara Morgan, wishing her the best, and we're anticipating only the finest from this wonderful woman," he said.

Loomer believes Morgan's two-week mission aboard the improved and recently refurbished Endeavour will be "picture-perfect" and will escape the tragedy that befell Challenger.

"In two weeks, we'll be cheering as she lands," Loomer predicted.