NEW YORK SPACE SOCIETY NEWS-MAKERS

"ASTRONOMY FORUM" FEATURES NSS/NY LEADERS

"Astronomy Forum," a monthly cable TV show broadcast monthly on Staten Island (NY) publc access television Channel 35, featured two live on-air programs with National Space Society New York Chapter leaders this year. The first, on February 2, 2004 (Groundhog Day) President Candace Pankanin and Vice President Harold Egeln appeared about "Our Place in Space," and Egeln was the solo guest on the second show, "The Future of the Space Program," on November 1, 2004, just after Halloween.

In the shows, broadcast live from 8:00 to 9:00 p.m., they discussed the future of U.S. space exploration, pro-space activism, current deep space missions, and the X-Prize private enterprise suborbital spaceflights.

The program is hosted by Karl Hricko, a college astronomer professor and retired science teacher, who initiated the show in 2000, backed by a lifelong interest in astronomy, and is co-hosted by Pat Brady, who begins the show with astronomical updates. The first 30 minutes is the interview portion and the last 30 minutes is the question and answer period, with phone call-ins and by the in-studio audience. In both programs, NSS members asked questions, such as N.Y. Chapter Secretary Eugene Cervone, astronomer John Pazmino and Norman Wille, along with a camera operator.

In August 2000 Elaine Walker, then the NSS/NY chapter president, and Paul Contursi, president of the Mars Society/NY chapter, were interviewed about their organizations' activities. "Astronomy Forum" has also done live interviews with astronauts Buzz Aldrin, Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper and Storey Musgrave. In Jan. 2004 Contursi was featured in a NY "Daily News" column about the Mars rovers.

Bay Ridge Grad Says: I STILL WANT TO BE AN ASTRONAUT

This top news story by Harold Egeln appeared in the "HOME REPORTER AND SUNSET NEWS" on February 14, 2003 on Page 2, and centers around Candace Pankanin, who was elected president of The New York Space Society in June 2003, and gives her reaction, along with ther local NSS leaders to the space shuttle Columbia disaster.

The HOME REPORTER and BROOKLYN SPECTATOR newspapers have also published a score of blurbs about NY Space Society meetings, several with photos taken by Egeln, who also did a newsphoto feature story in April 2003 on the Rose Center for Earth & Space Hayden Planetarium's Mobile Space Education Van.

By HAROLD EGELN Brooklyn, NY, February 14, 2003 -- Astronaut hopeful Candace Pankanin, a Bay Ridge High School student in the 1970s. was particularly hard hit by the tragic space shuttle Columbia disaster. "I just stood there, saying, 'No, no, this can't be happening again," she said as she watched the Columbia break apart on television. "BUT, IN MY HEART, I truly believe that all seven of the astronauts who perished would be smiling if they knew that their life's work gave a boost to the pursuit of space travel," said computer scientist Pankanin, an active member member of the National Space Society's city chapter, based in Brooklyn. When she was a child growing up in Brooklyn, her brother had a set of science books, which she read and took for herself. "My favorite was 'Man In Space'," she said. "And then came Star Trek. An episode could not launch without my father, John, being at the helm. I later became a Star Trekkie myself," Pankanin said. She attended Holy Family Grmmar School in Park Slope, where her mother helped her with science projects. Then she attended Bay Ridge High School, which is now the High School for Telecommunications Arts and Technology, and she graduated from St. Nicholas High School. A Brooklyn College graduate, Pankanin later earned her matsre of science degree in computer technology at the Stevens Institute of Technology six years ago. Her sister Debbie is a Fontbonne Hall Academy graduate whose husband, Timothy Grazioso, was lost in the World Trade Center attacks. "I ALWAYS REMEMBER being aware of the space program, but I didn't become really interested in it until Sally Ride became part of the shuttle crew in 1983," Pankanin said, noting that before that time American astronauts were all rest pilots and males. That was the year before she left Brooklyn and moved to Cliffside Park in New Jersey, fulfilling one dream. As the shuttle began its orbita missions in the early 1980s, the astronaut programbegan to open to science technology and math professionals, and with Sally Ride's first flight, women. About ten years ago while working for the telephone company, now Verizon, with a telecommunications team on a new "video dial-tone" technology, a co-worker showed Pankanin an ad. "It was a full page ad asking if 'You Had The Right Stuff' to become an astronaut," she said, calling in and getting a form with the qualifications. To gain more technical knowledge, she took courses at Polytechnic Universty in Brooklyn and Verizon gave her the hands-on technology she loves, leading to her degree in computer science from Stevens Institute of Technology in May 1997.

"Two montths later, in July 1997, I applied fo an astronaut position with NASA. Out of about 2,6000 applicants, I was not one of the few chosen for the next class of candidates," Pankanin said, disappointed but not discouraged.

She contacted the Astronaut Selection Office, and was told that most applicants do not make it in their first tries.

"But that is no reason to stop trying. They encourage those who have the qualfications, which I feel I do, to reapply," she said, hoping for another try in the future.

Despite the shuttle disaster and the need for NASA to find its cause and ensure shuttle safety first, Pankanin said, "I'm still dreaming."

SPACE TRAVEL ADVOCATE Elaine Walker of Park Slope, president of the space group's city chapter [NOTE: she was succeeded as president by Pankanin in June 2003], although saddened by the tragedy, is also looking to the future.

"I've been talking with my pro-space friends and there are different directions they want to go in the with the space program," she said. "There's some confusion right now because it's taking time to sit and think through what just happened."

The chapter, she noted, ironically held its Winter Fund-raiser, which Pankanin was at, the evening before the disaster. It was a successful party, as more joined the chapter to work for a pro-space agenda.

"We believe that the cause will be stronger if we put an effort into pulling together as a pro-space movement," Walker said, also hoping for a new generation of spacecraft to get "to the stars."

A possible memorial ceremony for the astronauts was being discussed and a program is also being planned at Christa McAuliffe I.S., which was named after the astronaut-teacher who died in the January 1986 shuttle Challenger explosion.

The National Space Society with 50 chapters, was founded by space rocket pioneer Wernher von Braun in 1974.

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Article copyright 2003 @ the HOME REPORTER, Inc.

'TO THE STARS!' SAYS SPACE TRAVEL LEADER

[This article is about the New York City Chapter of the National Space Society, its founder and (now former) president Elaine Walker, and a program it held early in 2002. The full page feature article by Harold Egeln, appeared originally in the HOME REPORTER & SUNSET NEWS, a weekly Brooklyn newspaper, on February 27, 2002 in the "BROOKLYN SPECTATOR" on Page 6.]

By HAROLD EGELN Brooklyn, NY, February 27, 2002 --- On April 12, 1961, the first human rocketed off Earth into space orbit, and the world has not been the same since. Now, 41 years after Russian Yuri Gagarin's orbital flight, a young Park Slope resident wants humans to travel in great numbers, bringing their arts, music and joys with them. LEADER ELAINE WALKER, a New York University 2001 master's degree graduate, is the president of the city chapter of National Space Society, a grassroots organization advocating more extensive human space travel, bringing humanity the real world Star Trek. "Humanity's future is in star travel, to dance from planet to planet. That is our destiny, to travel among new worlds," said Walker at a recent program, giving an upbeaat view. "Our organization is a forum for the public to express its views on increasing the human presence beyond our Earth-Moon system. Since being elected chapter president two years ago and reviving it, her chapter has held regular monthly free rograms at NYU's Main Arts and Science Building at 32 Waverly Place. Speakers have ranged from space probe engineers such as Jim Morrissey of the Goddard Space Flight Center and Amanda Moore, NSS's United Nations NGO representative, to astronomers and astrophysicists. In November (2001) three forums were held at the Rose Center for Earth and Space, and n the Intrepid Air and Space Museum, featuring the "2001: A Space Odyssey" movie, and actor Keir Dulleas, who played the prime astronaut, and a panel discussion on the future of human space flight. Soon the chapter will have a talk by Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson, PhD., the director of the Hayden Planetarium, where a new movie, "The Search For Life In Space" narrated by Harrison Ford, will begin in March. MAKING MUSIC OUT of a galaxy "far, far away and long, long ago" was the chapter's last speaker, Dr. Fiorella Terenzi, who earned her doctorate in acoustic astronomy from the University of Milan. Taking an innovative approach to astronomy, the astrophysicist, who lives in New York City and Los Angeles, recorded the sounds of Galaxy UGC-6697 180-million light-years from Earth, meaning that we see the huge complex of billions and billions of stars as it was 180 million years ago, the time it takes light to reach Earth. "I was amazed at the natural radio sounds, recorded by a radio telescope, that left the galxy way before the dinosaurs roamed the Earth," said Terenzi at her multimedia presentation at NYU, giving life to her objective scientific studies, all a joy to her. A revewer once called her a cross between "Carl Sagan and Madonna." It was noted that Sagan, made famous by his "Cosmos" PBS-TV series 22 yers ago, was eduacted for a time in District 21 schools in Brooklyn, one of which was shown in the "Cosmos" series. Terenzi is the author of "Heavenly Knowledge: An Astrophysicist Seeks Wisdom in the Stars," published by Avon Books in 1998' she produced a "Music From the Galaxies" CD nased on technology she created to convert radio waves from galaxies into music; and she has an award winning CD-Rom, "Invisible Universe."

"The universe is trying to explain itself to us," she said at the talk called "The Invisible Universe." "With this music and my book, I want to bring the universe closer to us, so that we can relate to it."

When she was a child walking with her grandmother at night near Milan, Terenzi was inspired to become an astrophysicist, "feeling an intimate connection to the stars."

When Walker was a child, she, too, had a clear view of the stars over her home in Los Cruces, New Mexico, which has translated into what she said is "a positive pro-space vision," beating her drum with that message.

WALKER WEARS another space helmet besides her NSS helmet, as the lead singer in Zia, an electronics pro-space, sci-fi techno-music band, now celebrating its 10th anniversary.

With CD albums such as "Big Bang," "Mars, "Frontier Creatures," "Zia cl1.5," "Shem" and "Sace Dancer," her group's original composiions pack city and regional night rock clubs, as fans dance away the night, filled with starry tunes.

Along with Liz Lysinger and Matt Dallow, they use futuristc instruments, such as the "Planetar." (NOTE: The group held its last gig in June 2003, a few months after Walker moved to New Mexiico.)

Walker earned her master's degree in music technology from NYU in May 2001.

In her NSS chapter work she reaches out to schools that have an interest in space education, and she has been arranging space projects and rocket launches with the Scouts, such as the Brooklyn Boy Scouts.

"Our organization can have a 'Space Scouts" category, suh as the 'Sea Scouts' now," Walker said.

Walker has won two awards recenty, presented at the 2001 NSS National Conference in New Mexico, one for her chapter and one for her most outstanding chapter leadership in the nation.

When the Twin Towers were attacked, which Walker saw from her Park Slope apartment, she feared for humanity's future, trapped in a cycle of violence and war, peventing Earthlings from the joys of space exploration in human-piloted star-ships.

But Walker keeps her eyes fixed on space, with the phrase of the the NSS, "Ad Astra!" which is Latin for "To the Stars!"

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Article copyright 2002 @ the Home Reporter Inc.