[sarex] MIKE MULLANE VISITS LOCAL SCHOOLS

[Arthur Rowe <azrowe80@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

SUBMITTED BY ARTHUR N1ORC - AMSAT A/C #31468

PERMISSION GRANTED BY THE EAGLE-TRIBUNE NEWSPAPER- N.ANDOVER.MA.

RETIRED ASTRONAUT LANDS IN MASS.- BY JASON TAIT - STAFF WRITER

METHUEN, MA
 Roughly 300 people worldwide have ever been to space, and one of them 
was at Timony Grammar School yesterday.
 Astronaut Mike Mullane had the right stuff to join that exclusive group 
of space shuttle astronauts, but it was not his natural ability, he said.
"I was no genius," said Mullane, 60. "I was not a gifted student. But I 
had this amazing dream come true."
His formula for success | try your best at everything, dream big, take 
care of your body and make education your top priority.
Mullane mostly stressed setting lofty goals. His message had an effect.
"It was captivating," said Dillan Fitzgerald, 14, who dreams of being a 
professional musician.
Mullane's visit was sponsored by Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems as 
part of its program to promote mathematics among American kids, called 
MathMovesU.
He also visited about 500 children at Arlington School in Lawrence, 
MA.and a Woburn,MA. school, and spoke to groups at Tewksbury,MA-based 
Raytheon.
A career Air Force officer, Mullane was selected in 1978 for the first 
group of shuttle astronauts. He flew three missions as a mission 
specialist, spending at most six days orbiting the Earth.
His presentation to students includes a full description of his space 
travels.
He has never seen an extraterrestrial.
Astronauts sometimes vomit.
And the most popular of all questions | how toilets work on space 
shuttles. The answers: vacuums, and the waste is purged into space.
"It's magnificent to look at frozen urine floating into space," Mullane 
said, showing video of crystalized urine drops being sprayed from the 
shuttle. Children chuckled in the classroom.
His story was about a boy from New Mexico who had a dream and worked 
hard to fulfill it.
Timony eighth-grader Paige Fleming, 14, called it "inspiring."
"He really did catch my attention," she said.

Retired astronaut Mike Mullane
Born: Sept. 10, 1945, in Wichita Falls, Texas
Current home: Albuquerque, N.M.
Books: Authored "Liftoff! An Astronaut's Dream" and "Do Your Ears Pop in 
Space?"
Profession: Retired from NASA and the Air Force in 1990
Web site: www.mikemullane.com
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