thedrifter
03-09-09, 10:14 AM
Learning the thrill of Discovery
Duo will be the first teachers to embark on spacewalk
By MARK CARREAU
Houston Chronicle
March 8, 2009, 10:05PM
Two globe-trotting schoolteachers are prepared to go where no professional educator has gone before.
On spacewalks — four of them, total.
The teachers, who are slated to ride the shuttle Discovery into space Wednesday, traveled different paths before ending up at NASA’s complex in Clear Lake.
Richard Arnold started by teaching college preparatory courses in Morocco, then moved on to schools in Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and Romania. Joe Acaba, an ex-Marine, found his calling in the classroom after a tour in the Dominican Republic with the Peace Corps.
“As an educator,” Arnold said, “you presumably believe in the notion that education can take you anywhere. Here we are. We’re knocking on the door. We’re about to go to space.”
Selected for the space agency’s educator-astronaut initiative, Acaba, 41, and Arnold, 45, began training in 2004 with nine others. Now, NASA has put them on the same shuttle flight.
“We were both surprised when we were assigned,” Arnold said. “I was really happy to be flying with a classmate, and I was really happy it was Joe.”
They’re scheduled to lift off with five others for a two-week assembly mission to the International Space Station
Paths led to NASA
Acaba grew up in Anaheim, Calif.
“As a young kid, I liked to read a lot of science fiction,” he said. “That opened up tons of possibilities, and it got me to thinking about maybe, someday, becoming an astronaut.”
After the Marines, Acaba earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in geology, worked in the Los Angeles area removing environmental waste from the water supply, and joined the Peace Corps.
“When you think about what you learn as a Peace Corps volunteer, it’s easy to connect the dots between that and becoming an astronaut,” he said. “There is a direct correlation between what you put into it and what you gain and what the host country gains.”
As part of his duties in the Dominican Republic, Acaba instructed the locals on environmental issues. “Once I did that,” he said, “I knew that education was what I wanted to do.”
“I definitely miss teaching,” he said. “… That was the job I was made for until I was offered this one.”
As a youngster in Maryland, Arnold juggled aspirations of becoming an astronaut, a baseball player or a scientist like French oceanographer Jacques Cousteau.
The latter soon dominated. Arnold fished the Chesapeake Bay and walked the shoreline in search of fossils. During visits to Florida, Arnold learned to snorkel.
While working as an oceanographic technician at the U.S. Naval Academy, he developed an interest in teaching while instructing midshipmen. He obtained a teaching certificate, then pursued a graduate degree in the environmental sciences.
Arnold combined interests in marine research and education to win a job at the Casablanca American School in Morocco.
“We made good friends and found this really big world out there and lots of opportunities to visit different parts of it,” he said.
Four spacewalks planned
Led by commander Lee Archambault, Discovery’s astronauts have trained more than a year for their flight. They’re prepared to install a new solar power module, repair the station’s water recycler and make external upgrades that will prepare the station to grow from three to six residents in late May.
Three of Discovery’s fliers are scheduled for the four spacewalks: Arnold with veteran Steve Swanson for two outings, Arnold and Acaba for one spacewalk, and Acaba and Swanson for another.
“If you look at our crew,” Arnold said, “we all come from very diverse backgrounds, different parts of the country, different experiences professionally, different family experiences. Yet, the one thing we do have in common is that education was a really important part of who we were growing up.”
They hope to demonstrate that educators can be as valuable to the nation as astronauts as they are in the classroom.
“Teachers have to think on their feet and be at their absolute best all the time,” Acaba said. “Our performance will speak a lot for the profession.”
mark.carreau@chron.com
Ellie
Duo will be the first teachers to embark on spacewalk
By MARK CARREAU
Houston Chronicle
March 8, 2009, 10:05PM
Two globe-trotting schoolteachers are prepared to go where no professional educator has gone before.
On spacewalks — four of them, total.
The teachers, who are slated to ride the shuttle Discovery into space Wednesday, traveled different paths before ending up at NASA’s complex in Clear Lake.
Richard Arnold started by teaching college preparatory courses in Morocco, then moved on to schools in Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and Romania. Joe Acaba, an ex-Marine, found his calling in the classroom after a tour in the Dominican Republic with the Peace Corps.
“As an educator,” Arnold said, “you presumably believe in the notion that education can take you anywhere. Here we are. We’re knocking on the door. We’re about to go to space.”
Selected for the space agency’s educator-astronaut initiative, Acaba, 41, and Arnold, 45, began training in 2004 with nine others. Now, NASA has put them on the same shuttle flight.
“We were both surprised when we were assigned,” Arnold said. “I was really happy to be flying with a classmate, and I was really happy it was Joe.”
They’re scheduled to lift off with five others for a two-week assembly mission to the International Space Station
Paths led to NASA
Acaba grew up in Anaheim, Calif.
“As a young kid, I liked to read a lot of science fiction,” he said. “That opened up tons of possibilities, and it got me to thinking about maybe, someday, becoming an astronaut.”
After the Marines, Acaba earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in geology, worked in the Los Angeles area removing environmental waste from the water supply, and joined the Peace Corps.
“When you think about what you learn as a Peace Corps volunteer, it’s easy to connect the dots between that and becoming an astronaut,” he said. “There is a direct correlation between what you put into it and what you gain and what the host country gains.”
As part of his duties in the Dominican Republic, Acaba instructed the locals on environmental issues. “Once I did that,” he said, “I knew that education was what I wanted to do.”
“I definitely miss teaching,” he said. “… That was the job I was made for until I was offered this one.”
As a youngster in Maryland, Arnold juggled aspirations of becoming an astronaut, a baseball player or a scientist like French oceanographer Jacques Cousteau.
The latter soon dominated. Arnold fished the Chesapeake Bay and walked the shoreline in search of fossils. During visits to Florida, Arnold learned to snorkel.
While working as an oceanographic technician at the U.S. Naval Academy, he developed an interest in teaching while instructing midshipmen. He obtained a teaching certificate, then pursued a graduate degree in the environmental sciences.
Arnold combined interests in marine research and education to win a job at the Casablanca American School in Morocco.
“We made good friends and found this really big world out there and lots of opportunities to visit different parts of it,” he said.
Four spacewalks planned
Led by commander Lee Archambault, Discovery’s astronauts have trained more than a year for their flight. They’re prepared to install a new solar power module, repair the station’s water recycler and make external upgrades that will prepare the station to grow from three to six residents in late May.
Three of Discovery’s fliers are scheduled for the four spacewalks: Arnold with veteran Steve Swanson for two outings, Arnold and Acaba for one spacewalk, and Acaba and Swanson for another.
“If you look at our crew,” Arnold said, “we all come from very diverse backgrounds, different parts of the country, different experiences professionally, different family experiences. Yet, the one thing we do have in common is that education was a really important part of who we were growing up.”
They hope to demonstrate that educators can be as valuable to the nation as astronauts as they are in the classroom.
“Teachers have to think on their feet and be at their absolute best all the time,” Acaba said. “Our performance will speak a lot for the profession.”
mark.carreau@chron.com
Ellie