NASA WORKER URGES STUDENTS TO CHASE DREAMS

NASA's Kurt Restemeyer, who spoke Wednesday to students at Cape Girardeau Central High School, brought back a plaque with a Central High School pin that flew on the space shuttle Columbia last year.

NASA simulator crew leader Kurt Restemeyer returned to Cape Girardeau Wednesday to deliver inspirational words and a piece of space history to Central High School students.

Restemeyer, a space shuttle simulator crew leader in Houston, Texas, is a 1979 graduate of Central. He returned to the school to present a plaque and replica of a Tiger lapel pin that flew for 16 days on the space shuttle Columbia mission that lifted off on Nov. 19, 1996.

"This is a token of my personal gratitude for what this high school did for me, but it's also a token to the students who follow me that you can dream big dreams and do whatever you want to do if you're willing to work for it."

Restemeyer spoke before more than 200 Central students interested in science-oriented careers. As a simulator crew leader, he is responsible for training astronauts for the manned missions in the space shuttle and in space stations. He helped train the crew that fixed the Hubble space telescope and continues to work with a special project that has monitored the Earth's atmosphere for the past decade.

"It's not the big glory days of landing people on the moon or sending a man to Mars, which I'm sure we'll do one day, but there are a lot of important things going on at NASA right now," he said.

Restemeyer said his high school and college experiences prepared him for his present job because they required him to set and reach goals. Students need to enjoy their experiences and take advantage of what their school has to offer, he said, because those experiences will one day be useful.

"It's not a big step from Central to NASA if you set goals," he said. "I didn't dream about the space program -- that wasn't what I wanted to do. But you've got to have a dream and you've got to have a goal and put a date on it if you want something to happen.

"A bill of goods is being sold today that is telling folks that if you fail at something then you're a failure. That's not true. You're only a failure if you don't try."