Smyrna students take simulated trip into space

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By Shane Blatt

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Kindergartner Nya Nkosi clicks her gold pumps as she dreams of being an astronaut.

Princess Dikko, pilot of the Russell Elementary School space shuttle and commander Joseph Swift walk in a parade before the launch May 7, 2009. Space team members have been preparing for the simulated launch for the past 8 months. More than 30 students will spent 27 hours straight at the school as they carry out phases of a real mission.

Russell Elementary School astronauts left to right, Manoah Johnson, Maya Velazquez and Christiuna Carter before the launch Thursday.

Russell Elementary School space team member Kyle Shackleford flips a page in her flight plan at mission control. The plan is 19 pages long.

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"I want to go to Pluto, even though it's not a planet. I want to bring back rocks," the 6-year-old says with a wide toothy grin.

Nya, a student at Russell Elementary School in Smyrna, might get to explore outer space sooner than she thinks. Sort of.

She and dozens of other students watched as six fifth-graders and a teacher — clad in orange jumpsuits and white helmets aboard the "space shuttle" Intrepid — lifted off at 10:30 a.m. Thursday.

Started in 1997, the Russell space center is an eight-month program in which students — 39 this year — study and train for a 27-hour mission simulation of a flight around the earth.

"If I can't be an astronaut, maybe I can inspire the students to be an astronaut," says program director Donna Smith, who's done special training with NASA.

While inside the shuttle (a portable classroom), the astronauts, along with teacher Michaela D'Aquanni-Swift, do routine tests, perform medical checks, conduct experiments and handle in-flight simulation problems.

To add a dose of realism, the students eat, sleep and use the restroom aboard the makeshift shuttle. "The only thing they haven't experienced is weightlessness," D'Aquanni-Swift says.

Closed-circuit televisions monitor their activities and broadcast them schoolwide. A mission control center also keeps a close eye on the shuttle.

D'Aquanni-Swift's son is leading the mission. Cmdr. Joseph Swift, 11, says although he had no pre-flight jitters, the simulation is "a very emotional experience because kindergartners and first-graders think this is real."

But Joseph probably isn't fooling little Nya. She's excited about the mission and wants to participate when she enters the fifth grade, but she's skeptical of the shuttle.

"It's like a square and doesn't have any rocket boosters."