Conference 7.286::space

623.0. "New Challenger learning center chosen" by 4347::GRIFFIN (Dave Griffin) Wed May 30 1990 10:30

	SAN DIEGO (UPI) -- The Reuben H. Fleet Space Theatre and Science
Center has been chosen as the first Southern California site for a
Challenger Learning Center, a space simulation lab for children,
officials announced Tuesday.
	Sen. Pete Wilson, R-Calif., and the parents of Judith Resnik, one
of seven astronauts killed in the 1986 explosion of the space shuttle
Challenger, were on hand for the announcement.
	To date, similar Challenger centers, instituted as memorials to the
dead shuttle crew, have been established in Houston, Greenbelt, Md., and
Tampa, Fla. Thirty additional sites have been chosen and are expected to
be open by 1993.
	Challenger centers feature simulated mission control rooms,
fashioned after the control facility in NASA's Johnson Space Center, and
simulated space station laboratories in which junior high school
students re-enact a space mission.
	The San Diego center will be the first to include a special
simulator cabin that uses computerized film to recreate the sensations
of space travel.
	Wilson, accompanied by his wife, Gayle, said the center would be
``a magnificent asset that will add to America's capability to recruit
and excite young people for science education, something that we
critically need.''
	Marvin Resnik, an Encinitas, Calif., resident and father of the
slain astronaut, praised the idea of the Challenger centers.
	``Anything that will preserve Judith's thinking on education is a
fitting memorial. We know she never stopped learning, she encouraged
education in the sciences and this Challenger center would really have
met with her approval,'' he said.
	The center's start-up costs, paid for with private donations, will
be $30,000,said Jeffrey Kirsch, director of the Fleet Center.


From: [email protected]
Newsgroups: clari.tw.space
Subject: New Challenger learning center chosen
Keywords: space, science, children's education, education,
Date: 30 May 90 03:57:30 GMT

[...]
	Marvin Resnik, an Encinitas, Calif., resident and father of the
slain astronaut [...]
^^^^^