With high hopes of watching the launch of a SpaceX rocket to the International Space Station carrying the mission patches of two ECISD students and the experiment of a graduate, a contingent from Crockett Middle School headed to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Crockett seventh-grader Vivian Hernandez, 13, her mom, Priscilla, an art teacher at Crockett, Principal Maribel Aranda and some of their family members made the trip.
The mission patches were designed by Vivian Hernandez and EK Downing Elementary student Celeste Ortega.
Swetha Kesavan, a 2022 Permian High School graduate, last year designed a space experiment to test the growth of a bacteria in microgravity. That experiment will be conducted by astronauts on the ISS.
The experiment was selected as the winner from ECISD by a national panel of researchers, scientists and educators.
The launch was scheduled and rescheduled several times.
“We were there up to the countdown of two minutes, maybe a minute and a half, whenever they scrubbed it because of the weather. We were in our ponchos and out there on the bleachers with everybody there,” Priscilla Hernandez said.
Although they wound up watching the launch on YouTube, just being out there was exciting and they got to meet people from all over, including a team from Ukraine. The capacity at the launch site is 3,000, Aranda said.
“It was … a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” she added.
It was a proud mom moment, Hernandez said.
“I don’t think very many moms are going to have that moment,” Priscilla Hernandez said. “I’m very proud of her.”
They visited Animal Kingdom at Disney World and spent a day at Cape Kennedy exploring. They experienced a simulation of the launch of Apollo 8, which Vivian said shook the the room and the windows.
When Vivian saw the launch on YouTube, she said it was surprising and exciting.
Priscilla said she wanted to jump up and down.
“She was more excited than me,” Vivian said.
She added that she will remember this for a long time.
Her mom wants her to try again, but Vivian indicated she would would prefer to opt out.
Vivian said seeing the rockets in person was really cool.
“When you see it on TV you don’t really comprehend how big it is in person, but when you see it in person it’s mind-blowing …,” Vivian Hernandez said.
“… It’s kind of crazy how humans are capable of building stuff like that,” she added.
Aranda said the experience was “super cool.”
“It was very informative and it’s kind of exciting to think about how small we are in this world. We are just a little speck compared to the whole universe. It was a really neat experience. We were able to visit the site and actually see one launch at night, but not the one we wanted to go see. But just the whole experience was very informative. It’s just surreal sometimes that we are able to put people in space. That’s crazy,” Aranda said.
She added that there is so much to do and see at the Kennedy Space Center, but they wanted to make sure they were able to get back in time to see the launch just in case, so they didn’t see everything.
“It’s really neat for Crockett because she represents Crockett and ECISD, so to have her artwork represent our school and ECISD, it’s an honor. We’re very proud of her …,” Aranda said.
She expressed thanks to her teachers and the Innovation Department for the opportunity. These are extra things that the teachers and students do that are not required.
“They just take it upon themselves and go for it, so we were excited it went this far even,” Aranda said.
Hernandez said they had a few sponsors that helped out. She also thanked the Innovation Department and said the trip wouldn’t have been the same without Aranda.
“It was fun. It was neat. I’ll be honest, I was impressed,” Aranda said.
Ortega, a 9-year-old fourth-grader at EK Downing Elementary School, said it was “really cool” that her mission patch had gone into space.
“And I thought that oh my god, that’s my patch going into space,” Ortega said.
She also was pleased that her patch was chosen to launch and she’s always been interested in space, even before the mission patch competition.
“… I thought it was really cool because I think I’m one of the first kids to actually draw a patch or make something that will actually go into space. My parents were just super proud …,” Ortega said.
The prospect of getting the patch back also is exciting, especially if it’s been touched by an astronaut.
“I was just overjoyed. I still am overjoyed,” Ortega said.
