Students at Fritsch Elementary School joined with more than 500 other schools around the world Friday in celebrating Space Day 2010 by signing Student Signatures in Space posters and other events.
As part of the program, participating schools are sent giant posters for their students to sign. Schools return the posters to Lockheed Martin, the signatures are scanned onto a disk, and NASA flies the signatures aboard a Space Shuttle mission.
Upon completion of the mission, the poster is returned to the school along with a photo of the astronaut crew that took the signatures into space and a NASA flight certification verifying that the signatures flew in space.
Robert Collier, director of the Jack C. Davis Observatory at Western Nevada College, brought telescopes to share sunspot viewing.
School board member Randy Carlson, an engineer and spacecraft designer, showed students how to measure things in space.
Teachers Michelle Wise Bellard and Irene Waltz organized the event.
More information about Space Day and Student Signatures in Space is available online at www.spaceday.org.