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Westridge Middle School students sign poster that will travel on next Space Shuttle
Westridge Middle School students signed a poster on May 15 whose image will be included inside the next U.S. Space Shuttle, scheduled for launch in November, Principal Dan Brosz said.
Westridge was selected to participate in the Student Signatures in Space project, which gives students the opportunity to send their digitized signatures into space and feel personal involvement with the crew and the mission. NASA and Lockheed Martin Corp. sponsor the program.
The posters are returned to Lockheed Martin and are individually photographed. NASA packages the photos and includes them in the manifest of a U.S. Space Shuttle. The Space Shuttle mission designated to carry this year's signatures has been tentatively identified as STS-129, a flight to the International Space Station that is scheduled for November.
After the safe return of the Space Shuttle, the poster, along with a flight certificate and photo of the crew, will be sent back to Westridge Middle School, where they will be displayed.
Since the program began in 1997, more than 5.5 million students have participated in Student Signatures in Space. Approximately 500 schools are selected annually to participate in the program, Brosz said.
Westridge's Parent Action Team submitted the school's name to participate in the project.
Lockheed Martin is the founding sponsor of Space Day, which takes place on the first Friday of each May. The project's goal is to promote math, science, technology, and engineering education. Lockheed Martin provides several space-themed lesson plans, as well as classroom and school-wide activity ideas, for participating schools. These items are featured on the Space Day Web site at
www.spaceday.org.
For more information, contact: Dr. Dan Brosz, principal, Westridge Middle School, (308) 385-5886,
dbrosz@gips.org
It is the policy of the Grand Island Public Schools not to discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, age, handicap, religion, or marital status in its educational programs, activities or employment policies as required by Title VI, Title IX, &Section 504.EOE/AA.