Penticton

Photo: Deborah Pfeiffer

Eager students listen to Mark Garneau talk about the final frontier

Canada’s first astronaut, Marc Garneau, invited eager grade six students to travel through space with him during a special presentation Monday morning at KVR Middle School in Penticton.

The hour-long slide show and talk by Garneau to about 150 students was one stop in a whirlwind two day tour of the Okanagan.

While much of the trip was focused on politics, Garneau, now the Liberal House Leader and a possible contender for the party’s leadership, the touch down at KVR was all about space exploration.

“I was invited by the Liberal association in the area, so I was here in part to talk to fellow Liberals,” he said. “When I do these things I like to talk about my background, because as far as I’m concerned I am a space guy.”

Grade six teacher Joanna Sluyter said when she learned Garneau, the first Canadian to travel in space, wanted to visit a school in the area she was quick to respond.

“Part of our curriculum is Canadian contributions to space exploration, and he figures largely in that,” she said. “So we thought it would be so inspiring for our students to meet with him.”

Indeed there was a buzz  in the air in the school’s multipurpose room as the mostly French immersion students listened to Garneau discuss  his experiences.

Initially he told them he learned Canada was looking for astronauts when he was at home reading the newspaper one day.

He sent in his name and was lucky to be chosen.

“I got to do something I never dreamed  of doing when I was young ,”he said.

Garneau subsequently became the first Canadian astronaut to fly in space as a payload specialist on Shuttle Mission 41-G in 1984.

Students could barely contain their excitement as he talked about his training in Houston, Texas and described the thrill of take off and how it felt once the astronauts got into space.

“It gets very quiet,” he said. “And the first thing you want to do is to float off into space.”

The mood in the room turned serious when he described seeing pollution and deforestation of earth from space.

“I remember looking down and recognizing the earth is our home, our only home, there is nowhere else we can go,” he said. “We have this beautiful planet. We need to take care of it.”

He also suggested that students  interested in becoming  astronauts  study hard, take care of their bodies and be good communicators, because when you are part of a crew you have to communicate very well.

The learning experience ended with students asking Garneau questions in French such as what does he eat in space, how much money he earned as an astronaut and does he believe there is life on other planets.

There was much laughter when he described how astronauts go to the bathroom in space.

Photo: Deborah Pfeiffer

Mark Garneau takes questions

Many of the students seemed reluctant to let Garneau go as they gathered around him at the end of his inspirational talk.

Jessica Broder, 12, described the hour with the former astronaut as out of this world.

“It was really cool because I never thought I would get to meet an astronaut and we have been studying lately about people who have been in space,” she said.

Daniel Everton, 10, added that he might want to become an astronaut someday after listening to Garneau talk about space exploration.

Garneau also made an appearance at the Penticton Lakeside Resort on Sunday evening and planned to visit with UBC Okanagan engineering students after stopping by the middle school.

“I like to pack in a lot on my visits,” said Garneau. “And I was delighted to be at KVR taking the students on an adventure with me.”