Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Students sending signatures to space in honor of annual "Space Week"

Students at Cabe Middle School are sending their signatures out of this world -- literally.

According to CMS science teacher Shelia Butler, the school is participating in the Student Signatures in Space program which is sponsored each year by NASA. The program, which is centered around Space Week, allows students to sign a poster which will be flown aboard an actual NASA shuttle mission into space.

Although the shuttle mission on which the signatures will fly will not be determined until this summer, Butler said the students will be able to follow the mission once they return to school in the fall to determine the exact location of their signatures.

Once in space, the poster will also be signed by each astronaut on the crew, and the crew will take a picture with it. The poster and the picture will be returned to the school where they will be displayed.

Since the program began in 1997, more than 4 million students have participated in Student Signatures in Space, according to a press release from the program. There is no cost for the school to participate, however, because of space constraints on the missions, there is a limit of 500 schools each year.

Cabe Middle School has scheduled a ceremony on Friday, May 4, at 1:30 p.m. during which the poster will be signed. The event will be held at the football field, and students will release balloons in honor of Space Week. Students are being urged to come to school dressed as astronauts or others who work in the space industry.

This ceremony will mark the end of a week when students have learned about space, Butler said.

Each student participating in the Signatures in Space program will receive a certificate giving authentification that their signature was sent on the mission to space.