Columbia Star

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Forest Heights students send signatures into space





Young space explorers from Forest Heights Elementary School got the opportunity to send their personal signatures into orbit aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery through a special program sponsored by NASA and Lockheed Martin.

In May, students from Forest Heights and other schools across the country signed Space Day posters. The students’ signatures were digitally captured from the posters and then included in the manifest of the STS- 120 mission. Discovery was launched October 23, 2007.

After the mission, the posters will be returned to the schools to display, along with an official NASA certification verifying the students’ signatures flew in space, as well as a photo of the space shuttle crew that carried the signatures into space.

The goal of the Student Signatures in Space Program is to pique students’ interest in space by getting them “personally” involved in a space shuttle mission.

Leading up to the missions, participants receive emails with space- related lesson plans, mission status reports, and instructional materials.

There is no cost for schools to participate. The program is limited to approximately 500 schools a year. Since the program launched in 1997, more than four million signatures have flown on various missions, including STS- 95, the historic shuttle mission that returned Sen. John Glenn to space.

Forest Heights Elementary is a NASA Explorer School. It is also Richland One’s only year- round school.


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