Lift-off!

Students at Abram Lansing Elementary School became part of a space mission on Tuesday, Oct. 23 when their signatures were launched into space aboard NASA's Space Shuttle Discovery on mission STS-120.

Last May, Abram Lansing students, teachers and administrators and city Mayor John McDonald, signed the Space Day posters. Their signatures were then scanned onto a disk that was carried into orbit today shuttle. This mission marks the 120th Space Shuttle flight and the 23rd Space Shuttle mission to go to the International Space Station.

Mission STS-120 is being commanded by Retired Air Force Col. Pamela Melroy. A veteran Shuttle pilot, Melroy is the second woman to command a Space Shuttle. Marine Corps Col. George Zamka will serve as pilot. Mission Specialists on the flight will be Scott Parazynski, Army Col. Douglas Wheelock, Stephanie Wilson, and Paolo Nespoli, a European Space Agency astronaut from Italy.

"We are very excited to see our signatures go into space," said Abram Lansing Principal Cliff Bird. "It's something I think the students will always remember."

After the signatures return from space, the poster will be returned for permanent display to Cohoes along with a flight certificate and picture of the crew that carried the signatures into space.

Since the program began in 1997, more than 4 million students have participated in Student Signatures in Space. The program is sponsored by NASA and Lockeed Martin. While there is no cost for schools to participate, the program is limited to approximately 500 schools a year.

For more information on Space Day, visit the Space Day web site at www.spaceday.org.