Ready for liftoff
at Northeast High

By Jon Campisi
Times Staff Writer

As mission control delivered the countdown, the four astronauts inside the space shuttle prepared themselves for what would be a rocky liftoff.
They had been preparing for this day for many months; they had everything they needed. Now it was just a matter of being locked inside their school for the next two days.
That’s right — school.
The astronauts were not actually NASA-trained pilots, but rather students at the Medical, Engineering and Aerospace Magnet School at Northeast High School.
The two-day event, which began April 30 and ended May 1, was a simulated flight into space by students who participated in the yearlong Project SPARC, or Space Research Center.
This year was the 45th anniversary of the sophisticated, extremely authentic program, which began around the same time as America’s space program.
This year also marked the 25th anniversary of the modern SPARC building, located on school grounds, which replaced a previous wing where the program had operated since its inception.
So, just what’s so special about SPARC? For one thing, it’s extremely hands-on.
"This is a peer training program. It’s student-managed and student-taught," said David Seltzer, who is retired from the U.S. Army’s Research, Development and Engineering Center and acts as a science adviser with Project SPARC.
A total of 120 students participated in the program this year. They are divided into six groups, all of which perform different functions essential to the project: administration, computers and automation, engineering, flight management, medical and robotics.
Each group is led by a manager (in the case of the medical division, a team of two managers), and each meets for two hours once a week after school. The near yearlong program culminates with a simulated flight to the International Space Station, during which the four astronauts spend a solid two days locked inside their shuttle, two other astronauts spend two days inside a replica of a space capsule, and the rest of the crew takes turns working around the clock to ensure the mission’s success.
"It’s pure dedication," Margaret Karpinski said of the hard work and long hours put in by the students.
Karpinski has served as the director of Project SPARC since 2005. There have been only three other directors in the program’s history.
Karpinski, who is also director of the magnet school at Northeast High and served this year as supervisor of the computer group, said the amazing thing about the program is its realistic simulation of an actual space mission. Everything from the computers at the mission-control station to the clocks on the wall, displaying times in countries around the world, makes Project SPARC truly a sight to be seen and an experience to be had.
Perhaps the only difference between a SPARC flight and an actual NASA mission is that the young astronauts were able to take real food into space, rather than the powdered dishes that real spacemen, and women, must rely on for nourishment.
"We’re way ahead of NASA," Karpinski joked.
In the early days of Project SPARC, student astronauts actually did take space food on their missions, but the program has since moved away from that, for better or worse, depending whom you talk to.
"They’ve gone soft now," student Mark Jacobson said jokingly.
Jacobson, a manager with the computers and automation group, said that in the 1960s, not only would the student astronauts consume real space fare and be hooked up to heart monitors, but they’d also spend five days in the simulator, not two as they do now.
"It was pretty hardcore," he said of the project’s early days.
In fact, a photo depicting that first mission hangs on a wall in the center, serving as inspiration for SPARC generations to come. Three student astronauts are pictured donning silver spacesuits and white helmets, authentic re-creations of what astronauts wore into space during those days of Alan Shepard and John Glenn.
Last week, the Northeast High astronauts wore dark blue coveralls, while the mission-control workers donned business attire, such as white shirts and black slacks.
As the shuttle prepared for liftoff, it attracted a crowd of spectators composed of school officials, parents and invited guests. Prior to takeoff, everyone in attendance watched a videotaped message from NASA pilot Christopher Ferguson, a Philadelphia native and Archbishop Ryan High School grad.
He returned for his third year as honorary flight director for the SPARC mission.
"You inspired a generation of students to continue doing what we do here at the Kennedy Space Center," Ferguson said in the message, referring in particular to Seltzer, the science adviser.
The message actually was recorded in front of a green screen at the Kennedy Space Center, with the background digitally added. That background showed a picture of the shuttle before liftoff; it was superimposed over a grassy field next to Northeast High School.
At the time of actual liftoff, the students got a round of applause from those in attendance. And rightly so, said Abishek Patel, one of the two managers of the medical group.
Patel said Project SPARC is very time-consuming for all involved, from the initial application process, when students choose what groups they’d like to be part of, to the final mission.
The day of the flight, Patel couldn’t contain his excitement.
"Until now, all we do is specialize in our field," he said. "This is the time of year we get to work together and come together and have a successful mission."
Anne Johnson, faculty director with the medical group, said the students who become involved with the project do so with either career aspirations in mind or a willingness to assist the effort for a successful flight.
Students in the medical group, she said, had to pass CPR and first-aid training to qualify for the position. Those skills not only help the mission but can come in handy for the teens in everyday life, Johnson added.
SPARC goes for realism so much that, on the day of the simulated liftoff into space, each entrance to the center was monitored by actual members of the Civil Air Patrol to ensure the program would not be interrupted.
"We run this just like a Hollywood performance," Seltzer said of the program, which is guided by scripts that the students prepare throughout the year to detail every moment of the mission. The scripts, he said, mirror actual NASA flight plans.
Perhaps the only challenge for the program, director Karpinski said, is the lack of funding for Project SPARC. If not for the school’s alumni association, which helped purchase much of the equipment, the astronauts may not be flying so high, Karpinski said. She’d like to see more done by the School District of Philadelphia, which, she said, does not offer a dime.
"That’s my goal, for the school to give me some kind of budget for these kids," she said.
The novelty of the space program among schools around the country makes Karpinski certain that Northeast High has more than met requirements for funding support of Project SPARC.
"They’re good kids, they’re good students," she said. "They support the school tremendously." ••
Reporter Jon Campisi can be reached at 215-354-3038 or jcampisi@phillynews.com