For Immediate Release
Students in the S*T*A*R*S ™ Program Donate Butterflies to the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum on Space Day 2000
Award-winning study of effects of microgravity on development, growth and behavior of Painted Lady butterflies to be honored
Washington, DC, May 4, 2000 - Award-winning space research by high school students about the effects of microgravity on butterflies, was honored at the opening ceremony for Space Day 2000, at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum. The students from Albany, GA, participated in the S*T*A*R*S™ (Space Technology And Research Students) Program in conjunction with SPACEHAB and the results of their work will be put on display at the Museum.
The S*T*A*R*S™ Program is an education initiative of SPACEHAB that creates opportunities for students to design and fly scientific experiments in space. High school students Julie Blackburn, Leon Douglas and Norman Batten of the Dougherty County School System High School/High Tech Program, Albany, Georgia will be on hand along with fellow students, to present the results of their scientific studies to the museum. These students designed and managed an experiment conducted aboard the Space Shuttle that explored how microgravity affects the development, growth and behavior of Painted Lady butterflies. The insects which flew in space, as part of this experiment will be donated to the museum even as other researchers continue to investigate some of the unexpected results revealed by the experiment.
S*TA*R*S™ is designed to create opportunities for students to develop and fly experiments aboard the Space Shuttle and, in the near future aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Student researchers monitor the experiment through the Internet while thousands of other students can "look over their shoulders" virtually while conducting control experiments of their own. Tens of thousands of students participate directly with more than one million expected online this year.
The three students have previously been honored by the United Nations, which recognized their work with the U.N. Outstanding Young Persons Awards. Those awards were presented during the United Nations International Day of Disabled Persons last December. Their disabilities did not stop them from designing and conducting an ingenious space experiment. Blackburn is a spina bifida patient and Batten and Douglas possess a learning disability.
More information about the S*T*A*R*S™ Program is available at www.starsprogram.com. The next S*T*A*R*S™ mission is scheduled for early next year. For information about Space Day visit www.spaceday.com. S*T*A*R*S™ is operated by Space Media, Incorporated, a wholly owned subsidiary of SPACEHAB.
SPACEHAB, with its Space Media and Astrotech subsidiaries, is the world's leading provider of commerce opportunities in space.
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