After orbiting the earth for 14 days aboard NASA’s Space
Shuttle Endeavour and visiting the International Space
Station in June, Flat Stanley — a cutout image of a Virginia
student — will return home to the Potomac Elementary School
in Dahlgren, Va.
Media representatives are invited to join NASA Administrator
Sean O’Keefe and astronauts Sandra Magnus and Leland Melvin
at 9:30 a.m. Dec. 2 when they return Flat Stanley to his
owner, student Vernon Tate. Potomac principal DeBorah Bushrod
and Dr. Candace F. Brown, King George County School
Superintendent, will also attend the ceremony in the school’s
gymnasium at 16495 15th Street, Dahlgren, Va.
Astronauts Magnus and Melvin will give presentations
highlighting NASA’s astronaut program and recent shuttle
missions and will answer students’ questions.
Flat Stanley came to life in 1964 in the imagination of
author Jeff Brown. Character Stanley Lambchop had an accident
that left him flat. Undeterred by being depth-disadvantaged,
Flat Stanley travels the globe by mail.
Children all over the world have taken part in Flat Stanley’s
adventures by making cutouts of themselves. The students
color the cutouts and send them by mail to friends, relatives
or total strangers afar. The students and their teachers
write letters requesting the recipients to take the cutout on
an adventure. In this case the adventure was out of this
world. Once the adventure is complete, the recipient sends
back a letter or postcard describing the adventure and sends
the cutout on another adventure.
NASA is committed to educating the next generation of
explorers, scientists and researchers as only as NASA can.
For information on NASA’s educational programs go to:
http://education.nasa.gov/
For additional information on the Flat Stanley project go to:
http://flatstanley.enoreo.on.ca/