Count down to Space mission

With their launch date inching ever closer, the 26 fourth and fifth graders who attend the Richmond Hill One Stop Community Center’s Computer Technology and Videoconferencing after-school program are full speed ahead in training.
Barring any postponement, the space shuttle will take off March 11, carrying a fresh crew of astronauts to the International Space Station. A few days after the launch - a date still pending - the crew will conduct a ten-minute videoconference with the students of One-Stop, led by program director Neme Alperstein and Community Center President Simcha Waisman.
But before they go barreling into space, the Richmond Hill youngsters will have a practice round, videoconferencing, or “downlinking,” with astronauts on the ground at Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.
On Thursday, March 6 the students will interact with the astronauts at Johnson in a program called “Floating Food and Puffy Faces,” as they learn about living in space.
“Thursday is just another piece in our preparation for ‘Future Explorers to the Moon,’ which all of our students are,” said Elizabeth Lebowitz, the Assistant Director of One Stop’s videoconferencing program.
Lebowitz, a full-time middle school math teacher in Flushing, is hoping Thursday’s “downlink” will energize students for the main event when they get to communicate with astronauts living and working in the zero-gravity atmosphere aboard the International Space Station.
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