Thu, Apr 08, 2010
Former Teacher Among The Mission Specialists Oh Her Way To
ISS
Eighth grade students and children of the military community in
California's Monterey Peninsula area will have an opportunity to
speak with astronauts orbiting 220 miles above Earth on Saturday,
April 10. The call with the students and space shuttle Discovery
Commander Alan Poindexter, Pilot Jim Dutton, and Mission Specialist
Dottie Metcalf-Lindenburger will take place at 0736 PDT at the
Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, CA. Metcalf-Lindenburger is
one of three teachers selected to fly as shuttle mission
specialists in the 2004 Educator Astronaut Class.
The Naval Postgraduate School has educated 38 NASA astronauts,
including Poindexter and former astronaut Dan Bursch, the school's
National Reconnaissance Office Chair, who is leading the downlink
event.
Discovery and its crew launched Monday, April 5, from NASA's
Kennedy Space Center in Florida. During the 13-day mission to the
International Space Station, the astronauts will deliver science
experiments and supplies; take three spacewalks to switch out a
gyroscope on the station's truss, or backbone; install a spare
ammonia storage tank and return a used one; and retrieve a Japanese
experiment from the station's exterior.
To introduce the students to the mission and prepare them for
the downlink, the Naval Postgraduate School produced a video using
NASA footage of Discovery and the STS-131 crew in training.
Astronaut John Phillips and former astronaut Jim Newman, both
professors at the school, will join Bursch to provide an overview
of the mission. They will answer questions before and after the
downlink about how to become an astronaut, pursue a career in
space, and train for shuttle missions. Students from the Graduate
School of Engineering and Applied Sciences will host a variety of
space artifact displays for the student participants.
The Naval Postgraduate School is a leader in space systems
education and active in space-related outreach and education in the
local and regional community; it celebrates its 100th anniversary
in 2010.
The event is part of a series with educational organizations in
the U.S. and abroad to improve teaching and learning in science,
technology, engineering and mathematics. The in-orbit call is part
of Teaching From Space, a NASA project that uses the unique
environment of human spaceflight to promote learning opportunities
and build partnerships with the kindergarten through 12th grade
education community.
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