STUDENTS OFF TO SEE GLENN MAKE HISTORY.Byline: Mary Schubert Daily News Staff Writer Two Saugus sixth-graders, a teacher and an assistant principal departed Wednesday for Florida to watch septuagenarian sep·tu·a·ge·nar·i·an n. A person who is 70 years old or between the ages of 70 and 80. adj. 1. Being 70 years old or between the ages of 70 and 80. 2. Of or relating to a septuagenarian. astronaut John Glenn make his encore space trip aboard the shuttle Discovery. Television news cameras surrounded Rio Vista Rio Vista may refer to:
Southwest Airlines This article is about the American airline. For the former Japanese airline, see Japan Transocean Air. For the British airline, see Air Southwest. Southwest Airlines Co. donated four tickets so the students, teacher Sue O'Brien and Assistant Principal Jon Baker could make the trip. Atlantis Elementary, a school about 12 miles from the launch site, will play host to the visitors during their four-day stay. Jason said Wednesday he had learned in e-mail chats with some Atlantis students that local schools tend to close on days the orbiter blasts off. ``If I was at that school, I'd be requesting space shuttle launches every week,'' Jason joked. Sarah said she had been doing research about Glenn, who on Feb. 20, 1962, became the first person to orbit the Earth. ``It was, like, a four-hour mission and he was all by himself, and he was homesick,'' she said. ``(He was) all alone in outer space, except for Mission Control talking to him.'' Glenn, the 77-year-old Ohio senator, and six other astronauts will be aboard Discovery for the nine-day mission. The Rio Vista travelers are guests of Glenn's crew mate, shuttle astronaut Scott Parazynski. Baker met Parazynski years ago when both were members of a United States 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. Parazynski has flown two previous shuttle missions, in 1994 and 1997, both of them aboard Atlantis. He will serve as flight engineer for the third time. CAPTION(S): 2 Photos PHOTO (1--Color) Sarah McIlvaine, 11, gets a hug from her mother, Laura McIlvaine, at Burbank Airport. (2--Color) Connie Stewart helps her son, Jason, try on an airplane hat before he boarded his flight to Florida. Jason and classmate Sarah McIlvaine will watch the launch of space shuttle Discovery. Michael Owen Baker/Daily News |
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