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Interest
in Space Takes Off for Students
By STEVE NEWBORN
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TAMPA (2005-07-26) Anyone who thinks interest in the space
program is waning hasn't talked to members of the Space
Academy. Dozens of children from around the area gathered
on the roof of the blue-domed Museum of Science and
Industry to catch a faraway glimpse of Discovery.
REPORTER: Who's excited about the space shuttle?.
RESPONSE: We are! REPORTER: Are you sure about that?
RESPONSE: Yeah! REPORTER: How come you're so excited?
FAWCETT: It's just new exploration. New technologies.
Finding out new discoveries.
Billy Fawcett of Brandon attends Buckhorn Elementary. He's
one of the dozens of students who attend the academy,
which teaches youngsters science-related topics.
REPORTER: Do you think space exploration is important?
FAWCETT: Yeah, of course. It's one of the most important
things government does.
Billy's not sure he wants to be an astronaut, but David
Brem wants to be an aircraft engineer. The Hillel School
of Tampa student is only 10 1/2.
REPORTER: How come you want to watch this? BREM: Because I
love NASA and I love space explorations and I think it's
very important discovering what's out there and there
could be life in space.
CROWD: Three, two, one, liftoff!
The students waited patiently until 10:39. The morning
haze, however, was not kind to long-distance viewing.
CROWD: Where is it? We didn't see it! Where is it? It
might be too hard to see because of the weather
conditions.
REPORTER: Who's disappointed? RESPONSE: We are! NASA is!
What's the matter, they forgot the fuel?
Tony Palaez then led the students down from the top of the
dome. Palaez is the technology and science content manager
for Space Academy. He says it's not hard getting the kids
interested in space exploration.
PELAEZ: This is one of the ways truly to inspire the kids.
And once they realize there's no limit to what they can
do, all the steps that it'll take in the case of the
sciences and mathematics and many of the other subjects,
are easy for them, once they managed to set their goals.
Palaez sported a Discovery mission patch and a belief in
the space program that's as optimistic as his students.
PELAEZ: I believe that as humans we have to continue to
explore, no matter whether we're exploring the oceans or
we're exploring space. And that any new discovery that we
make has some sort of benefit to the rest of the people
and the rest of society.
Hannah Flanagan of Dale Mabry Elementary School said she
was particularly disappointed she couldn't see the liftoff
- again.
REPORTER: Are you disappointed? FLANAGAN: Yes, because
I've waited all week to see the stinking thing. It didn't
show up last time.
But 10-year-old Lawson Jaffe took it all in stride.
JAFFE: But we'll see it on TV. Gotta look on the positive
side.
Jaffee said he's looking forward to actually seeing the
shuttle during the next launch.
© Copyright 2005, WUSF
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