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Alaska's Kenai Peninsula students received a rare and early treat for Christmas on December 21, 2006 that would make many green with envy. The Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, provided a live video-link conferencing opportunity to enable students to ask the STS-166 Shuttle Discovery crew members pre-approved questions before returning to earth. It is the first event of its kind in Alaska and is a historic first for Alaska 's Challenger Learning Center.

Students from each of the area elementary and middle schools were asked to submit preliminary questions of which only two students from each school were finally picked out of the lot. The teachers at the individual schools immediately recognized the exceptional opportunity to break away from the usual mainstay and rigidity of the classroom curriculum and used it to give all of their students a reprieve as well as give some real-life relevance to their scholastic studies.

Sixth grader, Denali Goodwill and 2nd grader, Brent Shelton, from Sterling Elementary, Matthew Morse of Kenai Middle School and IDEA home-school student Rachel Mackie, were among those students who no doubt didn't get much sleep the night before the videoconference link-up as they pondered what it would be like to talk to the Shuttle's pilot, Alaska's first man in space, Bill Oefelein known fondly by his space colleagues and Alaskans as Billy-O.

The atmosphere was electric with enthusiasm as all present at the Challenger Learning Center that day anxiously but patiently waited Alaska's turn. Since it was also the day before the Shuttle's scheduled return to earth, the major TV networks were still abuzz and hadn't finished with their standard back and forth questions about the weather, probable landing sites and other related matters.

Finally, the moment came and it couldn't have been sweeter for those students seated in the room as their eyes looked upon their Alaska flag being unfurled behind the STS-166 Discovery crew. In response, the students let out a cheer and the adults, well, let's just say there literally was not a dry eye in the place and there suddenly was some coughing and clearing of throats here and there. A few adults however were brave enough to just let the tears flow and be proud.

Typical of a young mind, Matthew Morse who attends Kenai Middle School wanted to know what the best thing was about flying the space shuttle and about how it felt being in space. And Billy-O a true Alaskan, answered almost like a kid himself passionately relating like a seasoned story teller what it felt like to be part of a team while completing the repairs of the space station mission and continued on with how just the other day he could actually see the full distance from Kodiak to Wasilla and could see the lights in the cities and the thunderstorms too. To say that the students had a great time is an understatement. They now have stories of their own to tell their own kids. They all agree that they are a fortunate group of kids. Not everyone gets to talk to an astronaut.

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Others remember when the Challenger Learning Center was just a spark of a dream. The Alaska Challenger Learning Center is number 39 of 52 similar centers around the world involved in the Challenger Learning Center For Space Education International Network. It was born in the painful hearts of the family members of lost astronauts in the Challenger 51-L mission in 1986. It was their desire that the legacy of their loved ones not be wasted, but continued through education.

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