#6 - Meeting a NASA Astronaut - June 5

Nestled in the heart of the Berkshires, for the last 70 years in a historic 1870 Victorian, is the melodious Berkshire Music School. It was there that I spent 2 years as the Marketing Director for special events, classes, and fund raisers. The music school teaches strings, winds, piano and voice to students of all ages. It is heartwarming to see a 4 year old girl playing a tiny violin or a 65 year old woman singing opera – all in the same recital.

One early summer morning, before the rest of the staff arrived, I took a self guided tour of the nooks and crannies of the old home. In one of the closets, I found a dusty collection of abandoned and forgotten violins. Several months later, these became priceless works of art and were sold at a very successful one-of-a-kind art auction. During the auction planning, I created a website used to promote the violins and the artists who created them. Through the site, I received an email from a women in California who loved the concept and was wondering if we had a poster to sell. I said “Yup!” and began working on one immediately. That poster is the muse for this Blog.

In the early 80's, Stephanie Wilson was a clarinet student at the music school and scholar at her high school with a great interest in astronomy. She went on to study engineering science at Harvard and aerospace engineering at the University of Texas. Diligence and persistence got her accepted to the NASA Space Program in 1996 and she is now a veteran of three space shuttle flights: STS-121 in 2006, STS-120 in 2007, and STS-131 in 2010.

In preparation for her 2007 flight, NASA called various places in the Berkshires on behalf of Wilson to request objects to be flown in space. The music school decided to send one of my violin posters (but not before I signed the back in big bold letters!).

STS-120 Discovery (October 23-November 7, 2007) launched from and returned to land at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida. Designated as flight 10A in the ISS assembly sequence, it was also a crew rotation flight, delivering an Expedition 16 crew member and returning with an Expedition-15 crew member. During the STS-120 mission, the Node 2 module named “Harmony” was delivered to the International Space Station. This element opened up the capability for future international laboratories to be added to the station. In addition, the P6 Solar Array was re-located from the Z1 Truss to the end of the port side of the Integrated Truss Structure. During the re-deploy of the array, the array panels snagged and were damaged. An unplanned spacewalk was successfully performed to repair the array. Wilson was responsible for robotic arm operations for vehicle inspection and EVA support, and she served as the Flight Engineer assisting the Commander and Pilot with space shuttle systems. The mission was accomplished in 238 orbits, traveling 6.2 million miles in 15 days, 2 hours, 23 minutes.

Source: http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/wilson.html

In May, 2010, Tracy Wilson (no relation) phoned me from the music school to say that NASA called and the poster was being returned home and she would like to invite me to a special ice cream social to commemorate the event. I thought the poster had been 'lost in space' after all this time! It was hot and sunny when Stephanie Wilson drove up to the music school on June 5 wearing her blue NASA jump suit and carrying a portfolio of goodies from outer space. During her last visit home, she signed a violin from our auction and we were able to display it in its new case with an official NASA patch. At the same time, she produced my little poster that had traveled well over 6 million miles to a place that will only be visited by the most minuscule percentage of Earthly inhabitants. She had signed the front and accompanied it with an official patch and mission collage. When she turned it over, I saw my big bold signature verifying that it really was mine. Wow – this is kind of cool!

Students and parents surrounded Wilson to get autographs and hear tales from space. I had a long list of questions but time was limited and I decided it was best to just listen. Someone asked how she felt about the shuttle program being phased out and she said it is time as the technology was outdated and would need to be redesigned and replaced but could not be upgraded. The shuttle has 5 computers each with 28k of memory! I asked what her hope was for the future of space – the ultimate desire. She said NASA's main concern is to continue trying to travel to other planets. Stephanie said from space you could see the deforestation of the Earth as well as the Gulf oil spill and miles and miles of highway and homes. We are depleting the Earth. I wasn't exactly sure what NASA wanted to do. Send humans to live on other planets once we over populate? Ship our garbage to Neptune? Or send the BP execs to Uranus? Whatever it was, we are now working with the Russians to maintain the space station and continue to explore space and beyond.

Stephanie Wilson is smart, gracious, personable, and interesting. She had many stops while home in the Berkshires as well as receiving an honorary degree from Williams College. Maybe if I have the opportunity to talk to her again, I will get to ask her about space hair care, eating, showering, and, of course, space diapers.

Seeing my friends from the music school, Kathy, Sandy, and Tracy, was also a treat. In some ways, it feels like I never left.

The Violin Auction Website  (note: Google Pages are not supported anymore)