ESSAY WINNERS TO VIEW BLASTOFF.Byline: Mary Schubert Daily News Staff Writer Two sixth-graders will be chosen today to watch John Glenn and his fellow astronauts blast into space next month aboard the shuttle Discovery, as part of a contest at Rio Vista Rio Vista may refer to:
The students, accompanied by assistant principal Jon Baker Jon Baker (born June 14, 1923 in San Francisco, California) was an American football linebacker in the NFL for the New York Giants. He attended the University of California. and teacher Sue O'Brien, will travel to Florida for the Oct. 29 shuttle launch, with donated plane tickets and as the guests of Discovery astronaut Scott Parazynski. Baker met Parazynski years ago when both were members of a U.S. luge luge (l  zh), a type of small sled on which one or two persons, lying face up, slide feet first down snowy hillsides or down steeply banked, curving, iced chutes similar to those used in team trying to win a spot in the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary. Last September, Baker viewed a night launch of the space shuttle space shuttle, reusable U.S. space vehicle. Developed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), it consists of a winged orbiter, two solid-rocket boosters, and an external tank. Atlantis on which Parazynski was the flight engineer. This year, Parazynski, 37, will be among the crew to journey with Glenn on the historic mission. The former Mercury 7 pilot will become, at age 77, the oldest astronaut in space. The Discovery flight will be Parazynski's third ride on the space shuttle - and Glenn's second time in space. The Ohio senator became the first American to orbit the Earth when he piloted the Friendship 7 space capsule for nearly five hours on Feb. 20, 1962. While in Florida, the Rio Vista contingent will visit an Orlando elementary school, where two teachers offered to put up Baker, O'Brien and the kids at their homes. Students competed for the trip by writing essays in class last week. The contest was open to sixth-graders only, and the youngsters were given a vague description of the essay topic two days beforehand to bone up on the subject, Baker said. ``They could do any research they wanted,'' he said. A quick perusal of the entries showed Baker that many of the students are drawn to the topic from the perspective of science fiction - perhaps ``Men In Black,'' ``The X-Files'' and ``Deep Impact'' - more so than science. ``After getting a lot of papers back, we're pretty much looking for Looking for In the context of general equities, this describing a buy interest in which a dealer is asked to offer stock, often involving a capital commitment. Antithesis of in touch with. information that extends beyond aliens and asteroids This is a list of numbered minor planets, nearly all of them asteroids, in sequential order. As of late September 2007 there are 164,612 numbered minor planets, and many more not yet numbered. Most asteroids are ordinary and not particularly noteworthy. ,'' Baker joked. ``I think a lot of them saw `Armageddon' (because) they were saying that we need to make sure we don't get hit by an asteroid,'' he said. The winning essays will focus more on aspects of space exploration like technological and medical advancements credited to National Aeronautics and Space Administration National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), civilian agency of the U.S. federal government with the mission of conducting research and developing operational programs in the areas of space exploration, artificial satellites (see satellite, artificial), research, the space program's history and whether space travel should continue, Baker said. He predicted the students will be impressed by the shuttle blastoff, which they'll view from the NASA Causeway, a road that runs through the Kennedy Space Center Kennedy Space Center (Cape Canaveral) U.S. launch site for manned space missions. [U.S. Hist.: WB, So:562] See : Astronautics and is about seven miles from the launch pad at Cape Canaveral. ``There's nothing like being there . . . actually feeling it shake and with all the noise,'' Baker recalled. ``When you go to the launch pad, all the grass and stuff is just singed and burned from the launching. It gives you a great perspective about how much firepower the launch (entails),'' he said. |
|
||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion