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Astronaut inspires aspiring young spaceman
By LESTER R. DAILEY
| Article published on Thursday, Aug. 10, 2006 |
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![[Image]](/content_images/081006_cit-01.jpg) |
| Photo by LESTER R. DAILEY |
| Retired Coast Guard aviator Bruce Melnick, a veteran of more than 300 hours of space flight, gives Shawn Hathaway, 13, some pointers on how to become an astronaut at the Harborview Center during the 15th annual Teacher Appreciation Breakfast. |
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CLEARWATER – Hundreds of educators filed into the Harborview Center on Aug. 2 for the 15th annual Teacher Appreciation Breakfast.
Channel 8 newswoman Stacie Schaible emceed, recording artist Joe Yazbeck sang the national anthem, Clearwater Mayor Frank Hibbard spoke and several door prizes were given away at the Clearwater Regional Chamber of Commerce-sponsored event.
But it was the reminiscences of Bruce Melnick, a retired astronaut who is now vice president for Florida operations of aerospace giant Boeing, which grabbed the audience’s attention.
“Although he is originally from New York, Melnick considers Clearwater, Fla., his home,” according to a Boeing biography of him. “Melnick graduated from Clearwater High School in 1967.”
Melnick first became interested in space travel on May 5, 1961, when his sixth-grade teacher told him that Alan Shepard had just become America’s first man in space by taking a 15-minute sub-orbital ride on a Redstone rocket. But those aspirations were forgotten as he entered his teens.
Melnick’s father was a charter boat captain whom he described as so inept that he and his brother took jobs on competitors’ boats so they wouldn’t have to sail with him. Melnick planned to quit school at 16 and work toward getting his own boat.
But with salt water in his veins and visions of the wild blue yonder in his head, he decided to apply to the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. After being rejected because his Scholastic Aptitude Test score was too low, he went to a state college for a year, then applied again and was accepted.
After graduation, he became a helicopter pilot and later, operations officer and chief test pilot at the Coast Guard Aircraft Program in Grand Prairie, Texas.
When NASA opened the space program to all the services, Melnick figured he would have little chance against the hot-shot jet jockeys who were traditionally chosen as astronauts, but he applied anyway.
To his surprise, he was selected as the first Coast Guardsman in the astronaut corps. He flew more than 300 hours in space as a mission specialist aboard the space shuttles Discovery in 1990 and Endeavor in 1992.
He described for the breakfast audience the exhilarating feeling of hurtling through space at 10 times the velocity of a 30-06 rifle bullet. He recalled how, while he was supposed to be taking pictures, he became so captivated by the beautiful view of the earth that he forgot the pictures until his commander reminded him.
He said that the sky is no longer the limit for today’s students.
“Just let your kids know that the American dream is still alive,” he said.
“He is a tremendous example of what you can be when you have a dream,” Beth Coleman, president of the Clearwater Regional Chamber of Commerce, said of Melnick when he had finished speaking.
After his presentation, Melnick met with 13-year-old Shawn Hathaway, who recently completed seventh grade at Safety Harbor Middle School and hopes to become an astronaut. Shawn started reading in preschool and was reading at the fourth grade level in kindergarten.
In fourth grade, he entered the gifted program and became captain of the Pinellas County Math Meet. When the Duke TIP Talent Search invited him to take the SAT in the seventh grade, he scored an amazing 1010.
Shawn has applied for a McKay Scholarship. If he gets it, he plans to complete his education in private institutions. If not, he hopes to enter the International Baccalaureate Program at Palm Harbor University High in the ninth grade.
“It’s fun to fly in space,” Shawn replied when asked why he wants to be an astronaut. “I love the stars and all that.”
And Melnick had some simple advice for Shawn, and for other kids pursuing their dreams.
“Stay in school,” he said. “Stay out of trouble with the law, don’t do drugs and you can do whatever you want to do.”
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Article published on Thursday, Aug. 10, 2006
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