Wise County students chat with astronauts on International Space Station

On Thursday, thousands of Southwest Virginia schoolchildren took a trip to space.

Well, sort of.

In a $40,000 event paid for by a host of local sponsors, children bused from seven different localities had the chance to speak with astronauts on the International Space Station via video downlink for about 20 minutes Thursday morning.

Wise County Clerk of Circuit Court Jack Kennedy, who organized the event, estimated that some 5,000 people were crammed into the UVA-Wise Convocation Center for the program that included the downlink.

The students, several of whom had the chance to ask questions, found out from astronauts Dan Burbank and Don Pettit about life on the space station and their thoughts on the future of space exploration.

“I look at where we’re going now, I look at the fact that we [the United States] retired the space shuttle, I am very hopeful,” said Burbank, citing plans for commercial spaceflight companies to take over the job of traveling from earth to low earth orbit.

“Personally I’d be delighted if we went to the moon,” he said. “I’d be thrilled if we went to asteroids, and we can’t go to Mars fast enough.”

 Living the dream

Thursday’s program, which also included several other space-related speakers, was aimed at giving kids both the inspiration to reach for the stars and some practical steps to help them get there.

One of the speakers was astronaut Leland Melvin, a kid on a homemade skateboard who grew up to play football for the Detroit Lions before he ever considered a career in the sciences and later became an astronaut.

He was the one who greeted the astronauts on the space station when the downlink began, with Burbank and Pettit appearing on a giant screen.

“Station, this is Wise County, Virginia,” his voice boomed over the microphone. “How do you hear me?”

The students asked their questions and, before the link ended, they laughed, cheered and applauded as the astronauts showed them what it was like to float around in a zero-gravity environment.

“Why are we all here?” Leland asked as the speakers program began. “We’re here for you because you are the next generation of explorers.”

He talked about persistence and the importance of being creative and not giving up.

A key example: the touchdown pass he dropped before he caught the one that got him a $120,000 college scholarship. Another example: his pursuit – and eventual achievement – of his dream to become an astronaut even after being medically disqualified because of a hearing problem during training.

In a picture of the crew he worked with on the space station during one of his flights – a group from different races, countries and backgrounds – he said he saw a picture of humanity working together as one civilization in space.

In a video he showed them all playing with their food.

“Who’s going to be the first student from Wise, Va., to fly in space?” he asked. “You can do anything you put your mind to, to live your dream.”

 Going to space

 Another speaker with an American Dream story was Anousheh Ansari, who arrived in America as a young girl who had no money didn’t speak English. She attended school in Virginia, went on to college and, after a few years in the workforce, started her first company.

Now co-founder and chairman of Prodea Systems, she went on to sponsor the X-prize for the first private citizen to go onto space – a competition she said was designed to bring the benefits of private-sector competition to the future of space exploration.

She showed the students a drawing she made some 40 years ago of a rocket launching into space, and told them she remembered looking up at the stars all those years ago as a child in Iran – a country that didn’t even have a space program – dreaming of being an astronaut.

She said space exploration has brought all kinds of benefits down to earth – everything from materials used in tennis shoes and football helmets to advances in weather forecasting and medical care.

“There are so many new jobs being created every day, not the ordinary jobs of the past, but there are new fields that are opening up and you guys have such a vast variety of things you can do,” she said.

Among those fields she said are now in their infancy: green energy, holographic imagery, robotics and space tourism.

“Let your imagination go wild,” she said. “Dream big. Don’t let anybody tell you that you canto do what you want to do, because it’s not the truth and you can do it.”

Wise future

The crowd was also joined by Billie Reed, executive director of the Virginia Commercial Spaceflight Authority, who talked about development of Virginia’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallop’s Island and the cargo missions planned to launch from the coast of Virginia starting this summer.

Reed told the kids to get interested in science and technology. Gov. Bob McDonnell, appearing via Skype with Del. Terry Kilgore, R-Gate City, promised educational opportunities to those who want to get involved with the future of spaceflight.

Adam Sanders, a 2002 Powell Valley High School graduate who helped build an advanced humanoid robot for use in space, was there as a real-life example of what’s possible.

He spoke about his not-too-distant school days when he thought the math problems and physics equations were things he’d never use – and how much he regretted that attitude later when he really needed that knowledge.

“I learned that you never know where your life is going to take you,” he said.

“Anyone working out of anywhere can be just as powerful as anyone else…. The technology’s out there, and the opportunity is endless. The great thing about being from a small town is that you have a chance to be a pioneer, do something that no one from the area has done before.”

In a region plagued by poverty, drugs and poor health, Kennedy said Southwest Virginia’s challenges are precisely why it’s important for children from Southwest Virginia need to get plugged in to the opportunities offered by the development of space.

“It’s a new era for space science, and we have put Southwest Virginia into the epicenter,” he said, noting its relatively close proximity to the spaceport – and commercial space policy – being developed on Virginia’s coast.

“There’s no reason that it can’t start at the University of Virginia’s College at Wise. That can be, should be, the epicenter…because we have the energy.”

With a variety of space- and science-focused programs for high school and college students and a core group of mentors, he said all the pieces are in place here to help develop the future of spaceflight.

There will be a future not only for scientists and engineers, he said, but for those who can contribute by manufacturing equipment for the space station or applying the region’s pool of natural resource knowledge to mining in space.

“The students who want a future, we want to make sure the door is open,” he said, “and if they wan tot step forward, we’re willing to help clear a path.”

The text in this story is written by the Bristol Herald Courier's Debra McCown and the video report is by 11Connects' Cameron Crapps.