‘Over the Moon’ Students from two local schools created postcards that will be launched into space BY DONNA HARRIS
Students at two Kennesaw schools might never own a moon rock, but they are expecting to possess the next best thing — an item that’s been flown into space and back. Blue Origin, an aerospace manufacturer and spaceflight services provider based in Kent, Washington, started Club for the Future in 2019 to inspire younger generations to envision a future life in space. As part of the program, students are invited to participate in Postcards to Space, where they draw or write a message on a postcard that will be launched on one of Blue’s future New Shepard missions, stamped with “Flown to Space” and returned to them. In the spring, former Kennesaw resident Ronnie Sullivan, a senior design engineer at Blue’s Florida facility, asked his wife, Lisa Sullivan, and sister, Tiffany Stevens, to have their classes at Northwest Classical Academy (NCA) and North Cobb Christian School (NCCS), respectively, create postcards to help meet the goal
of sending 1 million cards into space. “I think this is a wonderful opportunity to engage the younger generation and spark interest in our space program,” Ronnie said. “My interest in aerospace was launched by my fourth-grade class trip to the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville. Later, this desire was solidified when my sister, who, at the time, was a newspaper reporter, took me along for an interview that she was conducting for a story about Skylab astronaut Edward Gibson. Therefore, I am very passionate about making sure that the torch is passed to our younger generation. Who knows how far that generation will go toward our goal of ‘millions of people living and working in space?’” He soon found he isn’t the only one who’s fascinated by space — there was more interest in the program than just his wife’s first-grade class and his sister’s pre-K4 class. All 75 first-graders, plus five teachers, at NCA participated, and he received
Lydia Greer and Elliot Williams, pre-K4 students at North Cobb Christian School. 8
AROUND KENNESAW | July 2022
First-graders in Lisa Sullivan’s class at Northwest
roughly 375 postcards from students and teachers in pre-K3 through fourth grade at NCCS. Most of the cards featured rockets, planets and star-filled skies, and since Lisa’s class had just completed a unit on planets and the moon’s phases, several students drew a rocket headed to the moon. “The response was incredible,” Ronnie said. “I had the opportunity to look at each postcard and was really impressed by the enthusiasm and talent shown by these students. Also, I am very excited for the students because when I was their age, items that had been to space were only in museums. I still cherish the first item that I acquired that had been to space and back.” The students are stoked as well about possessing something that will have left Earth’s atmosphere and returned home. “They were over the moon,” Lisa said. “They continually asked when the postcards would cross the Karman
