Classes in six schools across the country were almost in orbit April 23.

After submitting the winning name “Harmony” in the Name the International Space Station Node 2 Challenge, students were congratulated by astronaut Don Thomas during a Digital Learning Network (DLN) event. Using video-conference technology, the DLN team connected all six classes from their hometowns to Thomas in JSC’s Building 9.

	Astronaut Don Thomas and Education / Internal Communications Supervisor Michelle Leggett (of the JIMMS contract) speak to students via DLN technology.

“I want to congratulate you,” said Thomas to the students. “I know you learned a lot along the way about the station, about space and about teamwork, which is so important to us here at NASA. We appreciate everybody’s participation.”

Thomas talked about the importance of the Harmony module, and explained that it will be launched to the space station aboard Space Shuttle Discovery during this year’s STS-120 mission, to be commanded by Pam Melroy.

He then showed the students an artist’s rendering of astronauts walking on the surface on Mars.

“Those astronauts are not the generation that I represent,” he said. “It will be somebody from your generation. Somebody in your classroom, your neighbor -- somebody in your generation is the right age to be the first person to set foot on Mars.”

JSC had sent each school a box prior to the event with instructions not to open them until the DLN conference. When Thomas gave the OK, the schools discovered that they had been given a plaque in recognition of their efforts, which featured an American flag flown in space. Each student received his or her own certificate as well, autographed by Melroy, and a “flown” flag will soon be sent to each student.

Six classes from six schools nationwide submitted the name Harmony, reflecting how the pressurized module will connect and provide a passageway to additional international partner science labs and cargo spacecraft. The academic competition involved more than 2,200 kindergarten through high-school students from 62 schools in 32 states. Participants also had to build a scale model of the space station and write an essay explaining their proposed name.

The participating classes were:
-- Paul Cummins' eighth-grade class of Browne Academy, Alexandria, Va.
-- Sue Wilson's third-grade class of Buchanan Elementary School, Baton Rouge, La.
-- Brigette Berry's eighth-grade class of League City Intermediate School, League City, Texas
-- Bradley Neu's ninth-grade science class of Lubbock High School, Lubbock, Texas
-- Russell Yocum’s third-grade class of West Navarre Intermediate School, Navarre, Fla.
-- David Dexheimer's students of the World Group Home School, Monona, Wis.


Harmony was built for NASA in Italy. It is the first U.S. piece of the space station named by people outside of NASA. In addition to increasing the living and working space inside the station, it also will serve as a work platform for the station's robotic arm. It is about 21 feet long and 14 feet in diameter, and is being prepared for launch at Kennedy Space Center.