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Students get a visit of astronomical proportions

Astronaut who went on her first space mission this summer brings her message back to schools

Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2006

Click here to enlarge this photo Naomi Brookner⁄The Gazette Stone Ridge of the Sacred Heart student Molly Deale, 15, touches a piece of material used to make space suits after Discovery Space Shuttle astronaut Lisa Nowak’s presentation on her recent space mission at the Bethesda school on Friday.

Despite a power outage at the school due to high winds, Nowak, a native of Rockville who used to attend Mass at St. Elizabeth, looked right at home in the darkened church. Dressed in a blue NASA uniform, she started by asking the students what they did on summer vacation, which elicited shouts of, ‘‘I went to the beach” or ‘‘I went to camp.”

‘‘I had a pretty good summer vacation, too,” she said, ‘‘because this year I got to go into space.”

Last week, Nowak also spoke to students at Tilden Middle and Luxmanor Elementary schools in North Bethesda, both which she attended as a child, and at Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart in Bethesda.

Nowak explained that Discovery, which docked on the International Space Station for two weeks, was the first space mission to ever launch on July 4. She said the shuttle was originally supposed to launch from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on July 1, but was cancelled due to bad weather.

Pulling out a small, plastic model of a rocket, Nowak explained to the students every step of the launch.

‘‘It takes only eight and a half minutes to get into outer space, but there’s a lot that needs to be done,” she said.

Nowak also explained that the path to becoming an astronaut is filled with many steps. After graduating from the former Charles W. Woodward High School in 1981, Nowak attended the U.S. Naval Academy and then applied to Navy Test Pilot School. However, she said, she did not make it into the school until her sixth try.

‘‘You have to realize that when you reach an obstacle or a closed door, you have to look for other opportunities and move forward to achieve your goals,” she said.

After finally being accepted, she trained at test pilot school and was subsequently accepted into the NASA program in 1996.

Despite some of the challenges along the way, Nowak said it was all worth it to fulfill her dreams of becoming an astronaut. Like many who grew up in the 1960s, she said she was inspired by the 1969 moon landing.

‘‘I was 6 years old and in kindergarten when I saw people landing on the moon and that had a big effect on me,” Nowak said.

Nowak may have also inspired a new generation of astronauts on Friday as she showed the students all kinds of space souvenirs, such as an astronaut sleeping bag and packets of space food.

Some of the more unusual things that people might not know about being in space is that there is no such thing as a shower — they had to use moistened washcloths instead — and tortillas are the bread of choice, since regular bread is too crumbly for an environment that lacks gravity.

Still, she said, being in space was an incredible experience.

‘‘We got beautiful views of the Earth,” Nowak said. ‘‘You can see valleys, streams, oceans and you can do a somersault right in the air.

‘‘We had a real good time and a very successful mission, so that was my summer vacation this year,” she added.

Vincent P. Spadoni, principal of St. Elizabeth, said he was impressed by Nowak’s presentation and that she was welcome back at the school anytime.

‘‘It was fantastic,” he said. ‘‘Considering our little dilemma with the lights being out, everything went well and you could tell the kids loved it. They had been looking forward to this for weeks.”