Local students watch their astronaut take off in the Discovery

These are the events that will provide role models for kids. We need scientist role models, not athletes. Athletes may be fun to watch.. but they contribute only entertainment to life. You can't eat that. What we need are scientists who can help come up with new ways to feed the exploding population on the earth, or a way to save the various animal habitats that are being destroyed because people keep taking over the land they need to live...

Reading about the astronauts, the space shuttles, and the International Space Station aren't only confined to news reports like the one below.

You can actually talk to astronauts online! Many of them have twitter accounts!

http://twitter.com/NASA_Astronauts

Meadowlark students watch the launch of the space shuttle Discovery with an alum of the school on board

Impressive as it was to watch the shuttle Discovery roar into the predawn darkness above Cape Canaveral, Fla., early Monday morning with former Eugene resident James Dutton Jr. aboard, the allure of space travel was lost on some of the kids at his old elementary school.

“I’m kind of scared that I might float off,” said third-grader Sydney Nash, who gathered with her 200-some schoolmates in the Meadowlark Elementary School cafeteria soon after the start of school to watch tape-delay footage of the nearly flawless 3:21 a.m. (PDT) launch.

Seated on the floor watching the NASA Web site digitally projected on a big screen, Sydney kept her hands firmly in her lap when Principal Juan Cuadros asked how many of the children might want to visit outer space some day. Classmate Katelyn Steward wavered, raising her hand a bit, then thinking better of it.

“I’m so-so,” she said. “I think it’d be cool, but really scary.”

What all the kids can agree on is how proud they are that a Meadowlark alum is piloting the shuttle to the international space station, fulfilling a dream of becoming an astronaut. What’s more, he has taken into space with him a banner with photos of every student and staff member at Meadowlark, and he has said he hopes to personally return it later this year.

“It’s pretty cool — he went here, so he wanted to do something for this school,” said third-grader Josiah Jones, who has reservations but wouldn’t write off space travel.

Among other items Dutton has taken on the 12-day resupply mission are another banner made by Sheldon High School students, some Sheldon Irish shamrocks, a University of Oregon car flag and a gold-plated 1958 Rose Bowl ring belonging to the late Len Casanova, legendary UO football coach and athletic director.

This is Dutton’s first time in space, and one of just four shuttle missions NASA has planned this year before retiring the orbiters in September.

Known as “Jimmy” to friends and family, Dutton, 41, already was talking about becoming an astronaut when he was at Meadowlark in the 1970s. He went on to Cal Young Middle School and graduated from Sheldon High in 1987.

He graduated with honors from the Air Force Academy in 1991 with a degree in astronautical engineering, then earned his master’s in aeronautics and astronautics in 1994 from the University of Washington. He then became an Air Force fighter pilot, flying F-15 combat air patrols in Iraq, and later served as a test pilot.

Dutton now lives in Houston with his wife, 1988 Sheldon grad Erin Ruhoff Dutton, and their four sons. But his local connections remain strong, said Nancy Muhlheim of Eugene, the mother of one of his closest friends.

Her son, Eric Muhlheim, a Disney executive who briefly attended Meadowlark and graduated with Dutton from Sheldon, is one of seven former high school classmates who traveled to Florida — in his case, from his home in Shanghai, China — to see Dutton off Monday morning. Also on hand was Linda Ague, a retired Cal Young librarian who helped Dutton research a school project about what it would take to become an astronaut.

A handful of students in Phyllis Ryan’s third-grade class at Meadow­lark also rose in the wee hours to watch the shuttle liftoff on their home TVs. They’ve done a space-related art project in honor of Dutton, and got a taste of what it takes to train for space when they visited the Science Factory for a screening of “Astronaut.”

“It was really exciting to see it,” said Isabelle Briggs, who went back to bed after watching it. “I’ve never seen anybody go off into space before.”