Spokesman-Review reporter Nick Gibson is in Orlando, Florida, to report on Anne McClain's and NASA's Space X launch from the Kennedy Space Center. Follow along in print and online at spokesman.com/sections/return-to-space.
Are you scared to go to space? What does zero gravity feel like? Can you help me understand science? Would you be on my YouTube channel?
Thousands of queries addressed to Army Col. Anne McClain, Spokane born and bred and soon bound for the International Space Station, poured in from Spokane and beyond in a letter writing campaign organized by McClain's high school math teacher.
Shari Manikowski is perhaps McClain's biggest Earthside cheerleader, though a mass of inquisitive and encouraging kids are giving her a run for her money. Manikowski coordinated the campaign from school kids sharing praise, testimonies of alien encounters and asking questions of the astronaut, scheduled to launch into space her second time on Wednesday.
Manikowski rallied her network of former pupils over her 24 years teaching at Gonzaga Prep who have gone on to work at schools around Spokane, as well as Montana and California, who then spread the word at their respective schools.
"Some of these kids that had their kids write letters, they were sitting in my class the last time Anne was in space, and now they're teachers," Manikowski said, beaming as she sifted through manila folders overflowing with messages from students.
On McClain's first mission to the ISS in 2018, Manikowski was a dedicated observer from the planet below, running outside to catch a glimpse of the ISS each time it was expected to twinkle over Spokane. Her students at the time would keep track of McClain's time in space, marking each of McClain's 204 days aboard the ISS.
"We counted the number of days until she went to space on the board, and then once she was in space," Manikowski said. "I was able to keep in contact with her, so I would send emails and stuff with questions."
Now, a new generation of space fans is doing the same. A seemingly endless stream of letters were still pouring in the week of McClain's launch, from local schools, including Adams, Hamblin and Roosevelt Elementary, Yasuhara Middle School, Assumption Parish School, Cataldo and All Saints Catholic Schools.
Letters came in from as far as Pretty Eagle Catholic Academy on the Crow Reservation in Montana and St. Paul High School, southeast of Los Angeles. Manikowski has connections at each school where students jumped at the chance to write a letter or color a picture for an astronaut.
"What I'm touched by in the letters is the number of kids that say, 'I love you,' " Manikowski said. "We can hate people without ever meeting them - these kids love somebody, they feel connected."
Greeting cards in envelopes addressed "to space," folded up notebook paper and construction paper artwork fill Manikowski's living room as she continued to collect notes for McClain. She's already sent photos and manila envelopes full of messages to the astronaut and will leave more with her mother while McClain is in space.
From silly to encouraging to inquisitive, kids didn't shy away from pouring their hearts and minds out to McClain.
"Anne are you scared to go to space? Anne are you planning to go to the moon?" Amara from Adams wrote in loopy pencil script. "I love that your a astronaut and your a girl."
"Your the brightest star of all!" Hugo Smith from Hamblen wrote.
"I am proud of you and your so sigma," Abdul, from Yasuhara, wrote using internet slang that means "extremely good and also widely used as a nonsense term and meme online," according to Merriam Webster.
Many were eager to share their own cosmic discoveries with the astronaut: "I'll get proof aliens are real! I have seen a UFO before ya know! It had aliens!!!"
One used the opportunity to invite McClain to be featured on their social media accounts: "Please download and play Brawl Stars on the space station while recording it and send it," a student requested along with detailed instructions for the U.S. Army Colonel and flight engineer to record, download and play the video game from space.
Questions largely centered around how typical Earth behaviors may be different on the space station, from sleeping to walking to using the restroom to vomiting. Some asked the astronaut for homework help. Some asked what spacewalks feel like, if she ever gets bored or how it feels to see Earth, "knowing it's so big yet it looks small out there," Los Angeles sixth-grader Indy asked.
Some hoped for McClain's reassurance facing their existential concerns.
"What can you predict in the future for our planet?" Olivia from California asked.
"What happens when our planet dies? Is there any other planet out there that can sustain life as well as Earth can? I think that's pretty unsettling," asked a Yasahura pupil, writing their I's with a heart and signing the letter "from a random flabbergasted kid."
Some shared personal fears and experiences in school: bullies, feeling unintelligent or ostracized from their peers.
"I love being me, but others stop me from doing that, what advice do you have?" a California sixth-grader asked.
Many kids see themselves in McClain, hailing from Spokane with the same lifelong fantasies of space travel.
"You've completed my childhood dream, thank you," one letter reads.
"You should know that you are helping kids pursue their dreams while you are pursuing your own dreams," Yasuhara's Isabella Turner wrote.
"I just want you to know you have made the biggest impact on showing young women and girls they can make their dreams come true," Abbigail White wrote from Yasuhara.
Even those outside of Washington feel her inspiration as a female astronaut.
"The thought of becoming a professional scientist has always appeared as an unrealistic dream, but after constantly watching and reading about the steps you took and the obstacles you overcame have shown me that an unrealistic dream can become a guaranteed career with a determined mindset like yours," wrote Valentina, a sixth-grader from Mark Twain Middle School in California. "Now, every challenge that I encounter appears as another opportunity to be more like you."
The letters included a chorus of support and appeals to safety. Kids sent prayers, reminders to stay smart and sane. Resoundingly, a sense of pride emanated from letters, Yasahura students giddy at the thought that someone who went to school right across the street from them at Gonzaga prep is headed to space for the second time.
"Know that everyone at Yasuhara and everyone in Spokane is cheering for you all the way," wrote Elsie King in red colored pencil with a drawing of a NASA spacecraft. "Have fun and return back safe."