Date: Fri 17-May-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: STEVEB

Quick Words:

Shuttle-Chilton-schools

Full Text:

with photos : Down-To-Earth Talk About Space Flight

B Y S TEVE B IGHAM

With his feet planted firmly on the ground, NASA astronaut Kevin P. Chilton

was in Newtown last Friday to talk with students about life in outer space.

Col Chilton, who commanded the Space Shuttle Atlantis to its docking mission

with the Russian space station Mir in March, spent the day in town answering

questions on issues ranging from space flight preparation to how one goes to

the bathroom at zero gravity.

"You have to be very careful in the space shuttle's bathroom or you're going

to have a messy situation on your hands," Col Chilton told a group of high

school students.

When it comes to eating in space, the 42-year-old space man said plates must

be velcroed to astronauts' laps to avoid floating food. Col Chilton, dressed

in blue NASA coveralls, explained that while weightlessness in space is

difficult to get used to, astronauts have an even tougher time adjusting to

gravity once back on earth.

The astronaut, who actually pilots the shuttle, steering it around asteroids

and other large orbiting space matter, had been a guest speaker at Hughes

Optical Systems in Danbury May 9 and by chance, ended up in Newtown the

following day after Middle Gate School third grade teacher Judy Beers received

word from Newtown resident and Hughes employee Phil Stahl that Col Chilton was

in the area.

The worldly Chilton, who also plays guitar in a rock n' roll band, spoke at

Newtown High School, Newtown Middle School, Middle Gate School and Head O'

Meadow School.

An officer in the United States Air Force, Col Chilton makes his home in

Houston, Texas near the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center.

Standing more than six-feet tall, the astronaut said he would never have had

the opportunity to blast off into orbit during the early days of space

exploration, but because the space shuttle is much roomier than space crafts

of the past like the Apollo, a person's height is less of a consideration

these days.

A veteran of three space flights, the astronaut flew his first mission on the

maiden voyage of the Space Shuttle Endeavor in 1992 to recover a damaged

satellite. In April 1994, Col Chilton piloted the Endeavor as it deployed a

space radar laboratory.

On his most recent mission, he commanded STS-76, the third docking with the

Russian space station Mir to transfer a NASA astronaut for a five-month stay.

The mission was also the first flight of Kidsat, an electronic camera

controlled by classroom students back on earth. Following 145 orbits of the

earth, Col Chilton landed Atlantis at Edwards Air Force Base in California.

What's it take to be an astronaut? Col Chilton said it takes a lot of hard

work. After graduating from St Bernard High School in Playa del Rey,

California in 1972, he went on to receive his undergraduate degree in

engineering from the USAF Academy in Colorado and his master's degree in

mechanical engineering from Columbia University in New York City. After

earning his wings at an air force base in Arizona, he spent several years

piloting aircraft and serving on several reconnaissance squadrons. In 1987, he

was assigned to NASA as an astronaut candidate.