Saturday, August 30, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

'THE NEXT GENERATION OF HEROES': Students get space travel lesson

Retired pilot, father of late astronaut visits Henderson school

Students at Lamping Elementary School in Henderson listen Friday as retired U.S. Navy pilot Barry McCool answers their questions about space exploration. Photo by Gary Thompson. Barry McCool speaks to students about space exploration Friday at Lamping Elementary School in Henderson. McCool's son, Willie, was the pilot of the space shuttle Columbia mission that ended in disaster in February. The school announced plans to build a science center to be named after Willie McCool. Photo by Gary Thompson.

Yeah, yeah, science is really neat and stuff, but how do you go to the bathroom in space?

"Very carefully," said Barry McCool, a retired U.S. Navy pilot and father of the late astronaut Willie McCool.

Children at Henderson's Lamping Elementary School peppered McCool with questions during an assembly Friday about what astronauts eat, how they sleep, and what it's like to float around the space shuttle.

"In a weightless environment," McCool noted in responding to the bathroom question. "Everything floats."

"Ewwww," said the children.

Efforts are under way at Lamping to bring the only Space Explorers Program in the Western United States there. There's even a William McCool Science Center planned for the school's grounds.

"To have Willie's name associated with it is a tremendous honor for us," his father said.

Willie McCool was one of seven astronauts to die Feb. 1 when the space shuttle Columbia exploded re-entering the Earth's atmosphere. McCool, 42, was the shuttle's pilot.

His parents live in Las Vegas, and Lamping's principal, Michael O'Dowd, said officials there thought of naming the proposed science center after Willie McCool not long after the crash.

"Most kids have decided by third grade whether they like science or not," the principal said.

And so, at Lamping, the faculty tries to get the children interested in science before that make-or-break year.

McCool spoke to the children about the importance of school for anyone who wants to be an astronaut. And, judging by the hands that went up in the crowd when he asked who wanted to be one, there will be lots of astronauts from Henderson in the future.

"If you have the drive, the heart, you can do it," he told the children.

Despite the release of a report earlier this week deriding the safety procedures at NASA, McCool often sounded like a politician on the stump, promoting the idea of space travel as a benefit "for all of mankind."

"There are students out here this morning who will have the opportunity to contribute to mankind's exploration of space," he said in an interview before the assembly.

He was not critical of NASA, instead blaming any decrease in safety on budget cuts.

"This is a high-risk occupation," he said. "Space is not easy. NASA gave every crew the best possible launch vehicle they could, based on the budget."

None of the politics came up when he spoke to the children, though. He showed them a Mylar balloon, the Velcro on his flight suit, and even a plastic package of chocolate pudding that he said wouldn't be around if not for U.S. space exploration.

"How many of you have had the chocolate pudding?" he asked. Every child in the lunchroom raised a hand.

He said the packaging of the pudding was designed for astronauts, and it's used for all of the food they eat, even steak and spaghetti.

He became mildly serious only a couple of times, such as when he encouraged the children to pay attention to their teachers, especially in math and science.

The country needs a new generation of astronauts, McCool said. "And that's what you all can be," he told the children. "The next generation of heroes."