Shooting for space

Retired NASA technician shares experiences

By HOLLI SUNDERLAND, Sentinel reporter, hsunderland@lewistownsentinel.com
LEWISTOWN — George Stitt spent more than 30 years working as an engineering technician for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration before he returned home to the town he loved.

On Thursday, Stitt took time to share his experiences with Betsy Fink’s second-grade class at Buchanan Elementary School.

The pupil’s in Fink’s class were eager to share their own big dreams for the future during the visit.

James Bair, one of the 23 pupils in the class, shared a similar dream to Stitt’s. However, Bair said he was certain his wish would take him to some place a little different.

“I want to be an astronaut because I want to go into NASA and work at Cape Kennedy Space Center,” Bair said all in one breath on Thursday afternoon.

“George grew up on the Terrace, and he graduated from Lewistown High School,” said Ginny Fink, a retired teacher visiting her sister’s classroom for the afternoon.

Stitt said he was in the Air Force in 1958 at Spokane, Wash., and then worked at Johns Hopkins physics laboratory.

“I quit there and went to work for Goddard. I thought it was a better opportunity, working for the federal government,” he said. “That’s when Goddard Space Flight Center was first opening up.”

“I started working for NASA back in 1963 ... and the first thing I worked on was getting ready for the first moon shot, getting ready to land on the moon,” he said.

It wasn’t long before the second-graders would test Stitt’s knowledge through a plethora of questions.

The question Alexander Geise and Hunter Powers pondered was: How hot is the sun?

“It can be a wide-range of temperatures,” Stitt said, before adding more explanation.

“How far is Pluto?” another student wanted to know.

“Real, real far. It’s so far away that NASA launched a satellite in 2004, and it’s still years away,” Stitt replied.

A bit of reality regarding the space program came to light after Stitt responded to a question about whether or not he went on a mission to space.

“I’ve never been on a space flight. The astronauts came in where I worked, and we would train them,” Stitt said, explaining the space facility.

“Do I know if there are martians? As of now, we don’t know,” he said in response to another student’s question.

James Bair wanted to know how astronauts went to the bathroom. Taylor Johnson wondered how big a spaceship might be.

“How do you talk to each other?” Jazmine Nale asked.

Stitt seemed to have an answer for each question received from the pupils.

As the discussion began to wind-down, Jade Bottorff asked “How do you have fun at work?”

“Work can be fun if you’re always interested in what you’re doing,” Stitt said.

“NASA’s always exploring different ideas,” he said, explaining that this unpredictability kept the job interesting for him.

Stitt also described some of the troubles faced by technicians and engineers in NASA today.

“We used to take these satellites and put them through all kinds of tests and environments. Some of the problems created now (include) how do you put it through all these tests and know it’s going in all these destinations,” he said.

Stitt also showed the kids a framed picture with a piece of a flag from the space shuttle Columbia that he received.

“That was given to some of us guys that worked with NASA,” he said.

Later, like a bit of stargazing, Stitt would look at the pictures hanging on the wall around the chalkboard with artwork made by the imaginations of children.

“These kids are a trip,” he said. “They can ask some pretty good questions for their age.”

Betsy Fink had a few reflections on her class’ experience as well.

“Students are unique individuals who have the potential to learn. Education is a lifelong process,” she said.