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Wadsworth, North Ridgeville have ex-residents going to space station
Published on Tuesday, Nov 17, 2009
From staff and wire reports
Two former Northeast Ohio residents were aboard the space shuttle Atlantis as it rocketed into orbit Monday with a full load of spare parts for the International Space Station.
Mission specialist Michael Foreman is a 1975 graduate of Wadsworth High School and shuttle commander Charles Hobaugh is a 1980 graduate of North Ridgeville High.
''We wish you good luck, Godspeed, and we'll see you back here just after Thanksgiving,'' launch director Mike Leinbach told Hobaugh right before liftoff.
Atlantis will reach the space station Wednesday. As the shuttle blasted off, the station was soaring 220 miles above the South Pacific.
Before liftoff, Foreman, whose mother, Nancy C., still resides in Wadsworth, reflected on his career path that has led him to great heights.
''I was one of those kids that just always wanted to be an astronaut,'' Foreman, 52, said in a pre-flight interview. ''Some people want to be firefighters and policemen and from when I was 8 or 9 years old watching the early space program on TV and reading about it in the newspapers, I just always wanted to do that. So ignorance is bliss at that point. You don't realize what an uphill battle you have to get into this program. But I just always wanted to do it and I just kept plugging away at that dream, and eventually it paid off miraculously for me and I got here.''
This is the second shuttle mission for Foreman, but that doesn't mean soaring through space is not exciting.
Foreman said he plans to peer out of the shuttle's window to try and catch a glimpse of his hometown.
''I know in the proximity, to Lake Erie and Cleveland and Akron, some other larger towns and I think if I can find Northeastern Ohio,'' he said in his pre-flight interview. ''Just look for the prettiest place there and that'll be Wadsworth.''
NASA wants to use the mission to stockpile as many pumps, tanks, gyroscopes and other oversize equipment as possible at the space station, before the three remaining shuttles retire next fall. None of the other visiting spacecraft is big enough to carry such large pieces.
The space agency expects to keep the space station flying until 2015, possibly 2020 if President Barack Obama gives the go-ahead.
During the 11-day flight, the crew will unload the nearly 30,000 pounds of equipment and experiments. Most of the gear will be attached to the outside of the space station on storage platforms.
Three spacewalks will be conducted beginning Thursday to hook everything up and get a jump on the next shuttle flight.
The launch seemed to go perfectly. Only three small pieces of foam insulation were spotted coming off the fuel tank, too late to be of any concern, said Bill Gerstenmaier, head of NASA's space operations.
''What a great way to start this mission,'' Gerstenmaier told reporters.
This is NASA's last shuttle flight of the year and one of only six remaining. If all goes as planned, the six spacemen will return to Earth the day after Thanksgiving, bringing home a seventh astronaut, Nicole Stott, who has been living at the space station since the end of August.
The astronauts will have to forgo the usual Thanksgiving fare. NASA did not pack any special turkey-and-trimming dinners aboard Atlantis. They'll have to settle for turkey tetrazzini in rehydratable pouches or thermostabilized chicken fajitas. There's also plenty of barbecued beef brisket.
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From staff and wire reports
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