A Space Odyssey: Zack Zettergren’s Journey From Classroom to Cosmos
When Zack Zettergren, a bright-eyed 10-year-old, left his small Mississippi hometown for Hendersonville, TN in January 1989, he carried with him a spirit of hope and a twinkle of stardust. As he bid farewell to his friends at Senatobia Elementary School, a beacon of optimism was lit by a project his 5th Grade gifted class had just concluded.
Despite their class being one amongst 6,000 schools that had participated in the OV-105 orbiter naming contest, Zack’s parents, Al and Bettye Zettergren, continued to inspire him. In an epic twist of fate, this optimism paid off. Zack’s class, under the guidance of teacher Martha Riales, saw their suggested name, ’Endeavour’, announced as the National Winner by President George H.W. Bush in May 1989.
This victory led to an exciting journey to Washington DC for Zack and his family. They were celebrated by a host of dignitaries, including President Bush himself. NASA organized a private reception at the Smithsonian’s Air and Space Museum in their honor.
Fast forward to May 7, 1992, a day engraved in Zack’s memory. He and his family watched in awe as the Endeavour, christened with the name they had proposed, embarked on its maiden voyage from Cape Canaveral, Florida. For eight captivating days, Endeavour orbited the cosmos, embarked on a mission to rescue a stranded satellite, and in the process, rescued a young boy’s dreams from the realm of the ordinary.
The Endeavour Narrative: As Told by NASA
Senatobia Elementary’s triumph wasn’t just a mere stroke of luck. The competition, part of a congressional resolution after the Challenger tragedy, was open to K-12 students and saw 6,154 entries from across the U.S. The challenge? To name the orbiter after an exploratory or research sea vessel, capturing the spirit of America’s space mission. Along with an essay justifying their choice, students had to present a research project to support their selection.
Endeavour, the name suggested by our young protagonist’s class, became the star of the competition. Students drew parallels between James Cook’s Endeavour, a British Royal Navy vessel, and the space shuttle. Just as Cook had steered his ship to Tahiti to study the celestial transit of Venus, the space shuttle Endeavour would push the frontiers of space exploration. The striking resemblance between the Endeavour’s maiden voyage in 1769-71 and the objectives of the space shuttle resonated with the spirit of exploration, leading to the selection of the name.
Fun Fact: Amid the high-tech world of space exploration, a simple letter “u” in Endeavour has caused its share of confusion. Endeavour is spelled in the British fashion in honor of the original British Royal Navy vessel.
With this, we invite you to join Zack Zettergren on his remarkable journey from the classroom in Senatobia Elementary School to the endless expanses of the cosmos, proving that no dream is too big, and indeed, the sky is not the limit.
Article from NBCNews.com
Each school’s entries included an essay about the name, the story behind it and why it was a perfect fit for the new shuttle. Endeavour was hands down the most popular entry, accounting for almost one-third of the state-level winners.
“The original Endeavour was a ship commanded by an 18th-century British explorer named James Cook,” Kylie Clem, a representative for the space shuttle program at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, told Life’s Little Mysteries, a sister site to Space.com.
On its maiden voyage in 1768, Cook, who was also a scientist, sailed the Endeavour into the South Pacific and around Tahiti to study and record the passage of Venus between the Earth and the sun. This rare celestial event allows observers on Earth to see Venus passing across the face of the sun. During another portion of his journey, Cook navigated the Great Barrier Reef and discovered New Zealand.
Senatobia Middle School in Senatobia, Miss., was the national winner in the elementary division, while the Tallulah Falls School in Tallulah Falls, Ga., was the national winner in the secondary school division. Then-President George H.W. Bush presented awards to each school during a ceremony at the White House.
The “u” in Endeavour’s name has caused some confusion, but “Endeavour is spelled that way because that’s how the British ship that it’s named after was spelled,” Clem explained.
The name’s spelling even caused a mix-up on the Launch Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, on July 2007.
In anticipation of the shuttle’s arrival to the pad for its Aug. 7, 2007, launch, officials hung a large banner reading "Go Endeavor!" and posted a photo of the sign on the Kennedy Space Center’s website. Once they realized that the sign was missing a “u,” NASA personnel hurried to take down the banner from the seaside launch complex and replace it with one that had the correct spelling.
