Front of the line in space

A little piece of Mesa View Middle School shot up into space March 11, took a sojourn on the International Space Station, and ended up circling the planet 250 times before it touched down at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral on March 26.

That’s what space shuttle pilot Col. Gregory Johnson told a packed gym Monday afternoon, at a return visit to the school after finally making it to space.

Johnson visited Mesa View in 2001 as an astronaut still years away from flying his first mission, and as part of the Spaceflight Awareness Program, a public relations effort for the space program run locally by former Mesa View parent Sheree Rannow.

The school’s principal at the time, handed him a “front of the line pass,” a small red token used as a reward for good behavior at the school.

Johnson said he appreciated his time at the school so much he took the pass to space and made a special request to come back and return it.

“I was really moved by this school,” he said. “We had a lot of good discussion back then. At that time I was hoping for my first shuttle flight. It’s been a good seven years.”

Johnson showed a four-minute video of his trip and discussed his mission aboard the space shuttle Endeavour, installing part of a Japanese science module and a high-tech robotic arm on the space station.

In addition to the informational part of the talk, he left time to discuss zero-gravity toilets and joke about his own role on the trip.

“On the shuttle, there’s the pilots, and then there’s the smart ones,” he said with a smile. “I would be, uh, one of the pilots.”

Despite training for a decade for the trip, Johnson said nothing could quite prepare him for the reality of floating above the planet.

“Looking at the Earth was really distracting,” he said. “You didn’t have these beautiful backdrops in the simulator. Occasionally I’d be doing a big job and look down at this beautiful planet and go, ‘Hey, I have to get back to work.’”

Sixth-grader Mackenzie Bray went up to Johnson after the speech and asked him what the most exciting part of the trip was.

Johnson walked her through the thrill of the launch — “You could never rehearse for that” — his sense of accomplishment when putting together a robot arm in space, and the relief of a perfect landing.

“That was really inspiring,” Mackenzie said.

As for the “front of the line” token, Principal Leena Olsen handed Johnson another one, just in case he needs it.

MICHAEL ALEXANDER may be reached at (714) 966-4618 or at [email protected].