Discovery Center of Idaho

SPACE DAYS 2010 - Women In Space was a great success!

Links To All Space Days Pages:

Space Days 2010 List of Events (see what Space Days 2011 will be like)
Apollo 11 Moonwalk
NASA Spinoffs
Cool NASA Stuff
Barbara Morgan Interview Video

Idaho Welcomed Retired NASA Astronaut, Wendy Lawrence, To Boise For Idaho Space Days 2010!

Wendy Lawrence spoke at the Discovery Center on Thursday, August 5th at 6:30PM, free admission. Wendy graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1981. A distinguished flight school graduate, she was designated as a naval aviator in July 1982. Lawrence has more than 1,500 hours flight time in six different types of helicopters and has made more than 800 shipboard landings. While stationed at Helicopter Combat Support Squadron SIX (HC-6), she was one of the first two female helicopter pilots to make a long deployment to the Indian Ocean as part of a carrier battle group. After completion of a master’s degree program at MIT and WHOI in 1988, she was assigned to Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron Light THIRTY (HSL-30) as officer-in-charge of Detachment ALFA. In October 1990, Lawrence reported to the U.S. Naval Academy where she served as a physics instructor and the novice women’s crew coach.

Selected by NASA in March 1992, Lawrence reported to the Johnson Space Center in August 1992. She completed one year of training and is qualified for flight assignment as a mission specialist. To date, her technical assignments within the Astronaut Office have included: flight software verification in the Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory (SAIL), Astronaut Office Assistant Training Officer, Director of Operations for NASA at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia, and Astronaut Office representative for Space Station training and crew support. A veteran of four space flights, Lawrence has logged over 1225 hours in space. Lawrence retired from NASA in June 2006. Wendy spoke on her experiences on her 4 missions, and on her experiences as a woman in the NASA space program.(link to STS-67, STS-86, STS-91, STS-114 information)

Barbara Morgan was on hand to meet the public during our Space Days celebration. Barbara is deeply involved with the Space Days celebration each year, and this year DCI showcased 2 new and successful educational programs brought to Idaho by Barbara. The ISAS (Idaho Science & Aerospace Scholars) program for high school juniors completes their inaugural year in August, and the Discovery Center had an ISAS display up all week, as well as hosted a presentation by ISAS students on 8/7 at 3:30PM. Also, on 8/5, 8/6 and 8/7, the Discovery Center hosted presentations by BSU Microgravity Team students, another of Barbara's programs, where they shared their projects and experiences at NASA doing testing in a simulated weightless environment. Both Wendy Lawrence and Barbara were available to meet the public and sign photos at the Discovery Center from 2:15PM to 3:15PM on Thursday, August 5th.

For a full list of activities over the 6 days of Idaho Space Days, Click Here

Updated on July 1, 2010

DCI Interviews Barbara Morgan About The Discovery Center on 3/23/2009 (10 minutes)

Updated on July 22, 2009

SPACE DAYS 2010 EVENTS AT THE DISCOVERY CENTER (see below for likely activities at Space Days 2011 next August)

Daily Activities:

• Visit our Magic Planet for a demonstration

• Learn about Idaho’s newest science education programs (i-STEM, Idaho Science & Aerospace Scholars, Virtual Space Community)

• Watch live streaming NASA TV

• "Sun Gazing" hosted by the Boise Astronomical Society (8/3 and 8/5 only) using telescopes with special filters

Monday – August 2nd:

• Model rocket demonstration with Ray Amaya of KBOI radio at 12:30PM & 2PM on the DCI lawn (free admission)

Tuesday – August 3rd:

• NASA Education Specialist, Tony Leavitt will be on hand for “show and tell” space travel stories at 10AM and 1PM

• Model rocket demonstration with the Teen Club at 2PM on the DCI lawn (free admission)

• Gene Nora Jessen, Idaho pilot and former "astronaut in training" in the early 1960's, will talk about her experiences with NASA in the early days of the Mercury program, and about her test pilot days with Beechcraft, at 6:30PM at DCI (free admission)

• The Boise Astronomical Society will host stargazing on the DCI lawn at 9:30PM. Telescopes will be available, but bring your own if you want to learn how to get the best results while stargazing at home (free admission)

Gene Nora Jessen Bio: http://womenscenter.boisestate.edu/events/WHM/2005/WMH/jessen.cfm

Wednesday – August 4th:

• NASA Education Specialist, Tony Leavitt will be on hand for “show and tell” space travel stories at 10AM and 1PM

• Model rocket demonstration with the Teen Club at 2PM on the DCI lawn (free admission)

• Chris McKay, NASA planetary expert, will host a video conference on some of the latest discoveries in space from his office at NASA Ames Research Center in California at 4PM in the DCI classroom

Chris McKay Bio: http://quest.nasa.gov/projects/spacewardbound/atacama2006/bios/Chris_McKay.html

Thursday – August 5th:

• NASA Education Specialist, Tony Leavitt will be on hand for “show and tell” space travel stories at 10AM and 1PM

• Airplane to the Moon! An entertaining presentation by our Education Director, Woody Sobey 11AM

• Model rocket demonstration with the Teen Club at 2PM on the DCI lawn (free admission)

• Both Wendy Lawrence and Barbara Morgan will be at DCI to meet the public and sign photos from 2:15PM to 3:15PM (regular admission will be charged)

• BSU Microgravity Team students will present their projects and the challenges of working with NASA in a simulated weightless environment, 3PM at DCI

• Astonaut Wendy Lawrence will speak at DCI about her 4 missions with NASA, and about her experiences as a women in the space program, 6:30PM (free admission)

Wendy Lawrence Bio: http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/lawrence.html

STS-67 Information: http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/missions/sts-67/mission-sts-67.html

STS-86 Information: http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/missions/sts-86/mission-sts-86.html

STS-91 Information: http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/missions/sts-91/mission-sts-91.html

STS-114 Information: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/archives/sts-114.html

Friday – August 6th:

• Model rocket demonstration with the Teen Club at 2PM on the DCI lawn (free admission)

• BSU Microgravity Team students will present their projects and the challenges of working with NASA in a simulated weightless environment, 3PM at DCI

Saturday - August 7th:

• BSU Microgravity Team students will present their projects and the challenges of working with NASA in a simulated weightless environment, 11AM at DCI

• Model rocket demonstration with Ray Amaya of KBOI radio at 12:30PM & 2PM on the DCI lawn (free admission)

• Students from Idaho's first ISAS program (Idaho Science & Aerospace Scholars) will share their projects and experiences in ISAS after formally completing the ISAS program earlier on Saturday. The presentation will be at DCI at 3:30PM

ISAS Web Site: http://www.sde.idaho.gov/site/science/isas/

To keep up with our current list of activities, just bookmark our calendar page:
Link To DCI Calendar of Events

Updated on July 26, 2010