"It was what was above the horizon that really interested me, though,"
said Shirley Hussey Cooper, a transplanted Kansas native. "I remember
flying with my dad and telling him I wanted to go above the blue. We
had already been above the clouds and I wanted to go above the blue
part."
Her childhood fantasy about what might lie above "the blue" turned
into a lifelong exploration of space, and to an association with the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration in an unusual volunteer
program.
"I'm a solar system ambassador for NASA," Cooper said. "This is a
wonderful program that allows people who have an interest in space to
obtain information about ongoing projects."
The 56-year-old said the program, which has representatives from all
over the nation, helps feed the interest that her dad nurtured while
she was growing up on the Kansas plains.
"My dad was a pioneer in aeronautics," she said. "He was building
planes of all sorts in the family barn from an early age.
"He built his first plane at 17, and at 20 took a few lessons from
a barnstormer. That was in 1927."
Cooper said her earliest memories are of those moments when she and
her father would mount one of his planes to fly over the vast prairies
below.
"I remember that we would fly and I would ask all of these questions
and he would answer them. Looking back now, I think at first he was
just trying to amuse himself by answering my questions," Cooper said
of her self-taught mechanic-ham radio operator-welder-blacksmith father.
"Until he understood that I had a real and deep interest in flying and
what lies beyond the blue part of the sky."
Although her interest in flying and space grew as she got older, it
never led her into the pilot's seat.
"By the time I was old enough to learn to fly, I had school interests
that sort of sidetracked me," she said. "But I've maintained my interest
in space exploration all these years; that's why I'm so happy to have
been chosen as a solar system ambassador."
Cooper said that as one of 278 ambassadors, she is able to receive
regularly updated reports on the Galileo space probe.
First launched aboard the space shuttle Atlantis in 1989, Galileo
has been on a continuing mission to explore our solar system.
"I can also find out about my favorite project, the Mars Odyssey Mission,"
said Cooper, a former landscaper. "I've been in love with Mars for some
time now, and I just love getting news about that project. I think my
wildest dream would be to landscape the Mars surface.
"The ambassador program also offers me the unique position of being
able to correspond and interact, through teleconferences and chat rooms,
with the actual scientists involved in projects," she said. "I can ask
them specific questions and they will answer me, which is just a great
thing."
The project information, graphics, photographs and other material
that Cooper receives from NASA through the volunteer program in turn
allow her to get into classrooms to share with students.
"That's another great thing about being an ambassador," she said.
"I get all this wonderful information and then I can take that information
to a club, school, Scout meeting or anywhere and share it with kids.
"They are finding new things out all the time about neighboring planets;
it's like opening labeled boxes and finding something completely different
than what's on the label inside," Cooper said. "I like that. I like
still being able to look up at the sky, beyond the blue, knowing that
there will always be questions we have to answer."
linda.krutsinger@thesouthern.com
/ 618-529-5454 x 15076
DETAILS
Space enthusiasts from all 50 states and Puerto Rico are selected
to lead public events and convey news and excitement about the latest
exploration of the solar system.
NASA chose 278 volunteers for its unique program for 2002.
The ambassadors run events such as star parties, lectures, community
displays, musical presentations and library appearances.
NASA provides the ambassadors with special training, including question-and-
answer sessions with leaders of interplanetary missions.
For more information on the volunteer program, go to www.jpl.nasa.gov.
