FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Traci Barnett
Phone: (703) 683-9740
FAX: (703) 683-7546
E-mail: tbarnett@challenger.org

Alexandria, Virginia, December 14, 1998 -- Imagine hurling a spacecraft through the coma of a comet to collect particles which will be returned to Earth and may hold the clues to the formation of our Solar System. The mission is STARDUST, and in early February, 25 Educators from around the country will gather at Kennedy Space Flight Center, FL, for a journey to the ends of our Solar System. These educators have been chosen from a field of hundreds of candidates as STARDUST Fellowship winners. The announcement was made by Challenger Center for Space Science Education, the organization charged with recruiting, screening and selecting candidates for the Fellowship teams under the direction of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

The twenty-five fellows are:

Bob Brazzle 			Chicago, Illinois
Paul Crips 			Cheyenne, Wyoming
Bob Crumely 			Whittier, Alaska
Peggy Donahe 			Aneth, Utah
Francis Gardner 		Columbus, Georgia
Sherry Hair 			Birmingham, Alabama
Martin Horejsi 			Pocatello, Idaho
Anne Ireland 			Davison, Michigan
Alan Landever 			Litchfield, Connecticut
Carol Lutsinger 		Brownsville, Texas
Linda McArthur 			Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
DeLaura Kay McLellan 		Columbia Heights, Minnesota
Dan Malerbo 			Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Byron Montross 			Fort Wingate, New Mexico
Linda Morris 			Paramus, New Jersey
Gay Negus 			Chattanooga, Tennessee
Alan Roth 			Vancouver, Washington
Fred Salazar 			Flagstaff, Arizona
Susan Solari			Lafayette, Colorado
Jamalee Stone 			Lincoln, Nebraska
Adair Teller 			San Marino, California
Heather Toomey 			Seattle, Washington
Nancy Tashima 			Captain Cook, Hawaii
Cheryl Wood 			Orlando, Florida
Donna Young 			Medford, Massachusetts

STARDUST is the fourth of several flight missions in NASA's Discovery program, and is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). The goal of the Discovery program is to design small, less expensive spacecraft with specific scientific goals that can be built in 36 months or less. The STARDUST spacecraft will launch in February 1999 on board an expendable launch vehicle and rendezvous with Comet Wild 2 in January 2004, coming within 150 kilometers (93 miles) of the comet's nucleus. The spacecraft will be the first ever to collect dust spewed from a comet and return it to Earth for detailed analysis. A sample return capsule will reenter Earth=92s atmosphere and land on a dry lake bed in Utah in January 2006.

Challenger Center is working with the STARDUST Outreach Opportunity Office at JPL to implement a nation-wide teacher training initiative with supporting educational materials. This effort is targeted at grades 58 and focuses on teaching students about small bodies, giving the opportunity to "Think SMALL . . . in a big way."

Working closely with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's (JPL) STARDUST team, Challenger Center for Space Science Education is spearheading this training effort and has already developed the workshop presentation and educational materials. The JASON Foundation for Education and Kirkpatrick Science and Air Space Museum at Omniplex round out the STARDUST Education Outreach Team.

Initially, ten STARDUST Educator Fellows were recruited from around the country to help field test the STARDUST educational modules and Teacher Training Workshop. This initial group helped test and modify the workshop presentation. Now, we are pleased to announce the selection of fifteen additional fellows to complete the official STARDUST Educator Fellowship Team.

Those selected for the STARDUST Educator Fellowship will receive:

• An intensive training workshop on: the STARDUST mission; science and educational aspects necessary to effectively present the STARDUST related topics; and comets and other small Solar System bodies. This will take place on February 3-7, 1999 in Titusville, Florida, at Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Station, where the spacecraft is being launched on February 6, 1999.

• A crash course on presentation strategies and a complete teacher training presenter package to use for STARDUST workshops

• Priority updates and mailings on the latest STARDUST mission information and materials

• Materials to help plan and promote STARDUST workshops

• Continued contact with the STARDUST science team to answer questions and to facilitate discussion

In return, selected Fellows have committed to conducting a minimum of two educator training workshops per year.

STARDUST Educator Fellows were chosen from extensive networks of classroom teachers, curriculum specialists, and museum/science center educators. The STARDUST Educator Fellowship Team provides a geographic and institutional mix of presenters from a variety of environments: science centers/museums; school districts; universities; educational organizations; etc., ensuring a diverse team of STARDUST Fellows across the country.