Astronaut Speaks to Stough Students
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October 12, 2010 - Former NASA Astronaut Frank Culbertson challenged Stough Elementary students to prepare today to be an astronaut who could share his experiences of looking back at the earth from space.
"I think they need to think big,” said Culbertson. “In 20 or 30 years from now, I think we will be sending people to Mars and this is the generation that will do it. If they want to go, they need to prepare now.”
Culbertson said today’s students need to be aware of the importance of taking care of our planet.
“The environment is very important in understanding how you do take care of it and how you preserve what we have,” said Culbertson. “It comes from science, math and engineering and those are all areas that benefit from the space program.”
Culbertson shared photos and talked about living and working in space on shuttles and in the International Space Station.
“My two favorite things of being in space are being weightless and being able to see the earth from that vantage point,” said Culbertson. “It’s a beautiful earth. But it’s important that we learn to work together and manage the environment, manage the politics and keep it a safe place.”
Culbertson is a veteran of three space flights and has logged over 146 days in space. In June, he was named to the US Astronauts Hall of Fame. He flew on the shuttle Atlantis on a 5 day mission in 1990 and on the shuttle Discovery on a 10 day mission in 1993. Culbertson lived and worked aboard the International Space Station for a total of 129 days, and was in command of the station for 117 days.
In closing his presentation to the Stough students, Culbertson showed a view of earth from the moon. He noted it had been 38 years since anyone from earth had stood on the moon. He said the students of Stough were the generation that will fly to the moon and to Mars.
“You do have to study hard even in elementary school to reach the next level and be successful,” said Culbertson. “Everything you do today is learning to use a tool that you will need tomorrow. I think it’s important that they understand that’s how people get to do exciting things. It’s by paying attention and learning, always learning.”
Culbertson was helped in his presentation at Stough by two grandchildren who are students there.
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