Students Get Taste of Life in Space

“Let’s see. I’m looking for ‘astronaut physique,’ ” said Donald Scott, scoping out the sea of elementary school students.

Allison Hulette, a fifth-grader, approached the stage eagerly.

“Put this on,” Scott instructed her, holding out a puffy plastic object, but Allison was squeamish. She shook her head.

The object was a diaper.

“That’s the first thing [astronauts] put on,” Scott said. “Disposable diapers were invented for NASA astronauts, but babies use it.”

Donning a diaper must be one of the lows of being an astronaut, but Scott, a NASA lecturer, wowed students at Acacia Elementary School on Wednesday with his talk on space exploration. Armed with models of space shuttles, astronaut spacesuits and drink pouches, Scott gave the students lessons in physics, and an inkling of what life could be like as an astronaut.

The school has already graduated one astronaut, Scott Horowitz, who was a pilot on one of Columbia’s shuttle flights last year. In February, Horowitz will be a pilot again, this time on the Discovery. He plans to take a banner made by the Acacia students into space.

In the auditorium, more than half the kids raise their hands when Scott asks who wants to be an astronaut.

“This school is your gateway,” he said. “Here’s where you learn all the things you need to become an astronaut.”