Space Shuttle Flight Launches School Activities

By Andrew Trotter

Schools across the country got a lift from the excitement surrounding the mission of the space shuttle Discovery and the return of Sen. John Glenn, the first American to orbit Earth, to space after 36 years.

Many schools tuned their televisions to the afternoon launch Oct. 29 to bring students the spectacle, in which Mr. Glenn, 77, made history again as the oldest person in space.

As the chief celebrity of the seven-member crew, Mr. Glenn and mission commander Curtis Brown also fielded questions from students in the Washington area and in the senator's home state of Ohio in a live audio interview. And teachers seeking to use the event in their classes could get plenty of ideas from NASA 's World Wide Web site, www.nasa.gov .