It was a starstruck moment — their first autograph — but it wasn’t a pop idol who excited these Overland Park girls.
It was a small-town Missouri woman who worked in space.
“I think it’s amazing that I’ve gotten an autograph from someone so special, a female astronaut,” said 11-year-old Disha Kuchangi, a student at Bentwood Elementary School.
“I really like science, and I’m interested in space and everything. It’s so mysterious,” said Disha’s friend Namita Kulkarni, 11, also a Bentwood student. “This is my very first autograph of anyone.”
Disha and Namita were among a group of friends clutching signed photographs of Linda M. Godwin, the keynote speaker at the Sally Ride Science Festival on Sunday. The E.F. Swinney gymnasium at the University of Missouri-Kansas City was buzzing as several hundred girls examined meteors, learned the chemistry behind making slime and got Godwin’s autograph.
Bear Ride, whose sister Sally Ride was the first American woman to travel into space in 1983, said the San Diego-based program is all about urging girls in fifth through eighth grades with budding talents in science and math to keep at it. The festival has been held at 90 university campuses nationwide since it began in 2001.
“Sally always has had a passion for supporting kids, especially girls, and reaching them at an age before peer pressure makes it difficult for them to stay with math and science,” Ride said of her sister.
Godwin, 57, a native of Jackson, Mo., launched her dream as a girl watching the American space program unfold in the 1960s. She followed it through her undergraduate studies at Southeast Missouri State University and then got a doctorate in physics from the University of Missouri in 1980.
At that point, NASA was encouraging women to apply to become astronauts for the space shuttle program. Godwin got nowhere with her first application, but she persisted and finally was accepted by the space agency — but for a desk job. Godwin then spiced up her resume by getting her pilot’s license.
In 1985, Godwin was selected for the astronaut program. Six years later, she blasted into space aboard the Atlantis, the first of four shuttle missions she participated in over 10 years. Those missions included visits to Mir, the Russian space station, and the international space station on her last trip in 2001.
All told, Godwin logged more than 38 days in space, and she made two spacewalks totaling 10 hours.
After a busy day on a tight schedule, Godwin told the girls that her favorite time in space was relaxing just before climbing into her sleeping bag, which was tethered to the ceiling or wherever there was room. Godwin would find a window — the shuttle cockpit usually was best — and marvel at the world she had imagined as a girl in Missouri.
“Looking out the window at the Earth going by, listening to music, that is my favorite memory,” Godwin said.
It took a while to get oriented geographically. The spacecraft travels so rapidly there were 16 sunrises and sunsets in a day, but at night, the Earth began glowing as cities lit up or electrical storms spanning hundreds of miles flashed.
“It makes you realize our whole planet is very fragile,” Godwin said.
And what tunes would accompany her cosmic reverie? Her favorites included songs by Billy Joel, Neil Diamond, Linda Ronstadt and John Denver.
With NASA closing down the shuttle program — only six more flights are scheduled — the next goal is to return to the moon with a new space vehicle and then perhaps someday aim for Mars.
Godwin looked out at the audience and said she hoped the girls would witness that Martian trip in their lifetimes.
“There’s an exciting future that will require a lot of talented people, perhaps some of you in this room,” she said.
To reach Kevin Collison, call 816-234-4829 or send e-mail to kcollison@kcstar.com.
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