T-Minus 5 Weeks to Space Camp for Seneca Teacher

teacher Kim Astromovich has two loves–space travel and football.

While her love for both subjects has grown from years spent as a fan, Astromovich will once again become an active participant in her first love this summer.

An alumna of the 2010 Honeywell Educators @ Space Academy, Astromovich is one of only 30 educators from around the world selected to participate in the 2011 Honeywell Educators @ Advanced Academy at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, AL.

“I’ve always had a big interest in space and space science,” Astromovich said. “This is a dream come true for me. If I hadn’t become a teacher, an astronaut or something in the aerospace industry would definitely be my career of choice.”

Astromovich, who teaches eight- grade science at Seneca, first attended the Honeywell Educators Space Academy in the summer of 2010.

“I was one of 220 people accepted worldwide into the camp,” she said. “I spent a week doing astronaut training.”

From zero gravity training to simulating what it would be like to land in the water with a parachute or be rescued from the water by a helicopter, Astromovich participated in 45 hours of intensive classroom, lab and training time focusing on space science and exploration.

“While I was there, there were 16 people who were part of something called advanced camp, so I asked them, ‘What are you doing? What’s advanced camp?’ They explained the program and I knew I wanted to do it, so I applied.”

Knowing only 16 applicants were accepted to the advanced camp in 2010, Astromovich said despite less-then-favorable odds, she never lost hope she would be accepted.

“From September, when I received notice I could apply, to December, I spent every Saturday writing my application,” she said.

Detailing past class projects based entirely on knowledge acquired during her previous camp experience and laying out future lesson plans, Astromovich submitted a 112-page application in December.

On March 3, she received her acceptance letter.

“Your application material was very exciting to review,” wrote Kelly Reed, the director of Honeywell Hometown Solutions, in the acceptance letter. “We were impressed with how you took the lessons learned from your Space Academy week, incorporated them into your classroom activities and shared them both inside and outside of your communities.”

In addition to pioneering a science exploration class at Seneca this fall, Astromovich traveled to district elementary schools to share with students her own space camp adventures in the hope of encouraging their interest in space and science. 

Astromovich’s own love of space was inspired as a child.

“When I was 8 years old, my parents took me to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida and at the time, the shuttle wasn’t launching and landing at Kennedy, but they had built the runway,” she said. “(The tour) drove us out to the runway and we walked out and (the guide) said, ‘Someday the space shuttle is going to land here and you’re going to say, I stood on this runway where the space shuttle landed,’ and I thought, this is so cool, so I got down on the ground and I touched the grooves in the runway. Then they took us to another part where I got to touch a moon rock. I was sucked in.”

Now 41 years old, Astromovich’s lifelong love of space travel will come full circle this summer when the space program’s last shuttle will launch from the runway that sparked her obsession as child.

“My message is, ‘Dreams do come true,’ look how long it took me,” she said.

Although this summer’s advanced academy is the last of the programs available, Astromovich said if ever NASA brings back the teacher in space program, she would be among the first to apply.

So while her students sleep until noon and make plans for the beach, Astromovich will join educators from five countries and 12 states to launch mock shuttle missions, build lunar outposts at the bottom of a 30-foot training pool and enjoy behind-the-scenes tours of Kennedy Space Center.

Honeywell Hometown Solutions funds all travel, lodging and program costs.