Cairo Association of Teachers - Newsletter

CAT Tracks for December 8, 2006 WHEN DAWGS FLY

Scroll down for related articles...including the successful Saturday night launch.

From the Southern Illinoisan...

One small step ...

BY CALEB HALE, THE SOUTHERN

Salukis have touched every corner of the globe, from the icy pole of Antarctica to the deserts of Egypt. Now, thanks to Southern Illinois University Carbondale alumna Joan Higginbotham, the Salukis will lay a stake upon - as Capt. James T. Kirk famously described it - the final frontier.

Higginbotham, a 1987 electrical engineering graduate from Chicago, is part of the seven-member crew boarding NASA's space shuttle Discovery for a scheduled launch tonight from the Kennedy Space Center.

Discovery flight STS-116 will be heading for the International Space Station, a continuation of the assembly mission NASA is currently undertaking. Launch is scheduled for 7:35 p.m.

This is Higginbotham's first trip into space, although she was accepted by the agency as an astronaut candidate in 1996. Her job on this mission will be to operate the space station's robotic arm, coordinating the cargo transfer between shuttle and station. She will also oversee various experiments and deploy small satellites once the shuttle undocks from the station.

Higginbotham began with NASA as a payload electrical engineer at the Kennedy center just two weeks after graduating from SIUC. She went on to earn a master's degree in engineering management from the Florida Institute of Technology in 1992.

Higginbotham was recognized as an SIUC Distinguished Alumnus in 1997.

While tonight's launch is her first on board a shuttle, Higginbotham has been a part of 53 space shuttle launches in her career.

Higginbotham has been unavailable to speak for several weeks, as NASA standard pre-launch protocol requires astronauts to be quarantined, but university officials had a good deal to say about her achievements and what it means to SIUC.

"She is a prime example of the quality of students � and the successes experienced by thousands of SIUC alumni," said Interim Chancellor John Dunn. "We will use this opportunity to emphasize the pride we have in our university and graduates and to recognize through astronaut Higginbotham that the Saluki spirit soars."

SIUC College of Engineering Dean William Osborne will be at the Florida launch site with several alumni tonight in support of Higginbotham.

Meanwhile, campus officials intend to hold a launch party starting at 7 p.m. in the SIUC Student Center's Renaissance Room. The event is free and open to everyone. Participants will view the launch on television and give away free T-shirts, pizza and drinks.

Lizette Chevalier, chair of SIUC's civil and environmental engineering department, said students should focus on Higginbotham's accomplishments as a sign of what anyone attending the university can achieve.

"We hope that the university and the community will want to look up into the sky after the launch and reflect on what this means to us," Chevalier said. "I know I will. And I know I'll be saying, 'You did good! Now come home and tell us about this magnificent journey of yours.'"

From the Southern Illinoisan...

First Saluki in space will have to wait

BY CALEB HALE, THE SOUTHERN

CARBONDALE - Clouds kept Joan Higginbotham's feet on Earth Thursday night, but the silver lining was the pride her fellow Salukis at Southern Illinois University Carbondale felt for all she had already accomplished.

NASA canned the launch of space shuttle Discovery flight STS-116 five minutes out from liftoff right at 8:30 p.m. due to a thick layer of cloud cover over the skies of the Kennedy Space Center.

Higginbotham, a 1987 graduate of SIUC's electrical engineering program, is part of the seven-member Discovery crew, which will dock with the International Space Station on an assembly mission.

NASA officials said they were evaluating the shuttle's next possible launch window, which could come as early as next week. However, campus officials, who held a launch party inside the Student Center Thursday evening, said they don't plan to hold another gathering at that time.

John Nicklow, interim associate dean for the engineering college, consoled a disappointed crowd Thursday night, as NASA crews scrapped the launch.

"Well, it didn't end in a launch, but it was no less special," he said.

No less special because not every university can say it's had a graduate in space. Technically, neither can SIUC yet, but Higginbotham, a native of Chicago, is still part of the Discovery crew and will be the first Saluki to go into space when a launch occurs.

Campus pride tempered any sullen edges.

As Nina Hickland, an SIUC graduate student in electrical engineering and co-member with Higginbotham in the National Society of Black Engineers, said, "It's definitely exciting, because it shows the whole world SIU graduates are capable of lots of things and that the possibilities are endless."

That message, she said, is priceless.

So, while Discovery remains grounded on a tarmac in Florida for the moment, the Saluki spirit of Higginbotham's supporters is already flying high.

From the Southern Illinoisan...

The Space Shuttle Discovery streaks across the sky over Daytona Beach, Fla., after lift off from Kennedy Space Center, Saturday, Dec. 9, 2006. (AP Photo/Daytona Beach News-Journal, Nigel Cook)

We have liftoff ... and a Saluki in space

By MIKE SCHNEIDER, The Associated Press

CAPE CANAVERAL - Discovery lit up the sky late Saturday, blazing off for the first nighttime space shuttle launch in four years - the latest step in NASA's ambitious schedule to complete the international space station.

The launch also marked the first Saluki in orbit as mission specialist Joan Higginbotham is a Southern Illinois University Carbondale alumna.

The shuttle's fiery ascent turned night into day for spectators at the Kennedy Space Center. A cloudy sky with blustery winds earlier in the day gave way to clear skies and a gentle breeze at launch time.

"I think we have five people who just haven't stopped smiling yet," commander Mark Polansky said after Discovery reached space.

The mission is one leg of a three-year race to finish construction on the orbiting outpost before shuttles are retired in 2010.

Low clouds forced the space agency to scrub a launch attempt Thursday night during a countdown that ran down to the wire. Managers decided not to try again Friday because the forecast looked even worse.

"Forty-eight hours makes a tremendous difference," launch director Mike Leinbach told the crew.

During their 12-day mission, Discovery's crew will rewire the space station, deliver an $11 million addition to the space lab and bring home one of the space station's three crew members, German astronaut Thomas Reiter of the European Space Agency. American astronaut Sunita "Suni" Williams will replace him, staying for six months.

The launch was the first at night since Endeavour's flight in November 2002 and only the 29th in darkness of NASA's 117 total shuttle launches.

NASA had required daylight launches for three flights after the Columbia accident in 2003 so that clear images could be taken of the external fuel tank. Foam breaking off the tank and striking Columbia's wing at liftoff led to the disaster that killed seven astronauts.

Waiting at the space station for his visitors to arrive on Monday, U.S. astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria told Mission Control: "We're going to head out and turn our porch light on so they can find us."

Referring to Williams's first flight, Lopez-Alegria told the shuttle crew: "I hope Suni likes it. She's going to be there for a while."

Discovery's crew is the greenest in eight years when it comes to spaceflight experience. Five astronauts have never flown in a shuttle before. The last time a shuttle mission had five rookies was a Columbia crew that flew in April 1998.

The two veterans are commander Polansky and Robert Curbeam, who will spacewalk three times. The others are pilot William Oefelein, and mission specialists Joan Higginbotham, Nicholas Patrick, Williams and the European Space Agency's Christer Fuglesang, who was the first Swede in space.

It also is among the most culturally diverse of any shuttle crew.

Besides the Swede, there are two black astronauts, an astronaut of Indian descent, a British-born mission specialist, an Alaskan and a New Jersey boy.

Three of Discovery's astronauts will take three complicated spacewalks and play the role of electricians by rewiring the space station from a temporary to a permanent power source.

NASA officials were glad to get the shuttle off their ground since they wanted it back on Earth by the new year.

Shuttle computers are not designed to make the change from the 365th day of the old year to the first day of the new year while in flight. The space agency has figured out a solution for the New Year's Day problem, but managers are reluctant to try it.

It was the third shuttle launch of the year, and only the fourth since the Columbia disaster in 2003.