Commander Danny Robillard and his crew had been training for years. So when there was a blackout on their space shuttle, they handled it well. As a result, the Columbus Magnet School fifth-graders landed successfully Friday morning, emerging from their spaceship to a crowd of waiting dignitaries, family members and supporters on the 50th anniversary of Alan Shepard's Freedom 7 flight.
The kids and their peers in Mission Control spent all night at the Norwalk school, handling science and math problems just like their NASA scientist and astronaut counterparts, in the school's 16th mission. The after-school Young Astronaut program is open to first- through fifth-graders, combining serious learning with a sense of wonder and fun.
State Sen. Bob Duff, D-Norwalk, said there aren't many schools that offer a Young Astronaut program. "I have to say I'm blown away," said Susan Marks, superintendent of schools. "I've been in education for 38 years, and I've never really seen anything quite like this." She said it was important to challenge students with a rigorous yet relevant program.
"My gosh, is this relevant to our world," she said. "You have to build the relationships. And a lot of your learning was about teamwork, because you know that we can't send the shuttle up and get the shuttle down safely without teamwork and what a wonderful team."
The kids said they also encountered a water leak in their mission, which they solved by tightening seven screws. Asked for a scary moment, one girl said she was afraid of running out of microwave popcorn. The hardest part of the rendezvous with Mercury was the hot pressure suits.
Sean Walters, a "retro astronaut" representing cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, was asked for his best moment. "Playing with the mouse," he said. The toughest part of playing Gagarin was using a Russian accent. He said, "The only connection I had to Russia was Russian dressing."
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