April 25, 2003
By CHRIS REINOLDS
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
North Fulton community page
T. LEVETTE BAGWELL / Staff
Students at Mountain Park Elementary participate in a live video conference with astronauts on the International Space Station. Cosmonaut Nikolai Budarin (from left on the screen) and astronauts Ken Bowersox and Don Pettit have been living on the station since November 2002.
T. LEVETTE BAGWELL / Staff
Alaļa Giglio, 10, a student at Mountain Park Elementary School, laughs as astronauts demonstrate what it's like to be weightless.
Mountain Park Elementary students had a chat recently with the astronauts aboard the international space station, 250 miles above.
Teacher Kati Searcy arranged the live video conference with Commander Ken Bowersox, flight engineer Nikolai Budarin and science officer Don Pettit.
"Alpha, this is Houston. Are you ready for the event?" came the call April 17.
"Alpha, this is Mountain Park Elementary School in Roswell, Georgia. How do you hear me?" Searcy responded.
Then a parade of students stepped up to the microphone to ask questions on topics ranging from keeping in touch with family to science experiments.
The astronauts told the students they love their job and are amazed by their view of Earth. They also showed off for the students when asked about being weightless. Pettit flapped his arms and "flew" through the space station while Bowersox and Budarin somersaulted to cheers that echoed throughout the school.
"It's wonderful and such a free feeling. We enjoy every single part of it," Bowersox said.
The astronauts said they are studying the effects of space on the human body. The body will lose calcium in the bones, and space also affects the cardiovascular and immune systems.
Two fifth-graders who are Russian also asked questions in their language of Budarin, who seemed amused.
"It's always great to hear the voices of young people who are excited about space," Bowersox said.
After the astronauts signed off, exclamations of "that was so cool" buzzed through the audience.
Although no questions arose about the loss of the shuttle Columbia and its crew on Feb. 1, the astronauts did talk about hitching a ride home on the Russian Soyuz capsule. NASA officials have said if shuttle flights are delayed for a year or two, operation of the international space station will continue, with the support of Russian spacecraft for supplies and crew rotations.
Leesa Hubbard, an official with the educator astronaut program, presented Searcy with a pin commemorating the Columbia crew. Searcy, who became interested in the space program while preparing to teach a lesson, now teaches at a space education conference every summer.
Searcy first came across the video conference idea while attending a NASA education conference at which participants were linked with the space station. She applied for her own video conference last fall. As part of last week's event, students also asked questions of engineers and officials at Kennedy Space Center.
Marshall Murphy, 9, asked the astronauts who inspired them and why.
"They were really good. I'm changing my mind about being a pilot in the war, I want to be an astronaut," Marshall said afterwards. Alaļa Giglio, 10, said she enjoyed the show but is still weighing her career options.
The video conference was broadcast around the world on NASA TV, which can be accessed by satellite users and some cable systems.
See actual AJC article here.
NASA International Space Station Info
SkyWatch - Locate the station as it flies over your backyard!
See space pictures here
NASA Article
4 p.m. CDT, Friday, April 18, 2003
Expedition Six Crew
04.18.03
STATUS REPORT: ISS03-17
International Space Station Status Report #03-17
The Expedition 6 crewmembers on board the International Space Station stepped up their preparations for returning to Earth this week, while the next permanent crew for the station received its final certification for a launch scheduled for the end of next week.
Monday the Expedition crewmembers -- Commander Ken Bowersox, Flight Engineer Nikolai Budarin, and NASA ISS Science Officer Don Pettit-got into their Sokol launch and entry suits for a fit check in the shock-absorbing seats in the Descent Module of the Soyuz TMA-1 spacecraft docked to the station's Pirs Docking Compartment. Wednesday morning, taking advantage of their ability to look at the actual hardware on orbit, the crewmembers spent an hour answering questions from members of the flight control team in Houston about the details of several maintenance and repair tasks completed during the past few months. Packing of personal gear, and other preparations for departure and landing, continued all week.
Plans for the launch of the next crew to the International Space Station advanced this week, too. On Monday at the General Designer's Review in Moscow officials confirmed that the Soyuz TMA-2 vehicle is ready for launch. Today officials at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia, certified the Expedition 7 crewmembers for flight.
Commander Yuri Malenchenko and NASA ISS Science Officer Ed Lu are due to depart Star City for the Baikonur Cosmodrome launch site in Kazakhstan on Sunday to make final preparations for their launch April 26, at 9:54 a.m. Baikonur time (10:54 p.m. CDT on Friday, April 25). The new crew should arrive at the station early in the morning of Monday, April 28, to begin six days of handover briefings with the returning crew. Bowersox, Budarin and Pettit are scheduled to land in the old Soyuz on May 4; Bowersox and Pettit will be the first American astronauts ever to land in a Soyuz spacecraft.
While spending more time on departure preparations this week, the station crew continued their science operations. All three participated in biomedical experiments looking into lung function and kidney stone formation in microgravity, and each day Pettit oversaw experiment runs of the InSpace investigation in the Destiny Laboratory's Microgravity Sciences Glovebox. Pettit has been applying and removing magnetic forces to particles and clumps of particles suspended in paramagnetic fluids for the benefit of investigators looking to develop better fluids for brake and vibration damping systems.
All three crewmembers also continued their participation in several research protocols to learn more about how the human body reacts to extended periods in a weightless environment.
Thursday the Expedition 6 crewmembers participated in another educational event, answering questions about their mission and about living in space posed by students from Mountain Park Elementary School in Roswell, Ga., who have been participating in a year-long celebration of the Centennial of Flight.
Information on the crew's activities aboard the space station, future launch dates, as well as station sighting opportunities from anywhere on the Earth, is available on the Internet at:
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/
Details on station science operations can be found on an Internet site administered by the Payload Operations Center at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., at:
http://scipoc.msfc.nasa.gov/
The next ISS status report will be issued after the launch of Soyuz TMA-2, scheduled for late Friday, April 25, or sooner if events warrant.
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