Inspire, Winter 2006

Coach Defies Gravity Cindy Hasselbring '95 by Jeff Meade of The Monroe Evening News (Michigan) October 19, 2006 C indy Hasselbring has packed a lot ofliving into 33 years.The Milan coach and teacher has run at least two miles every day since 1998,a streak of more than 3,000 consecutive days. She has made two trips to Japan as part ofan education group,met with Michigan's governor aboutimproving high school curriculum standards,is a certified scuba diver and played women's semipro football. As a high school athlete, Hasselbring helped Milan win a state cross country championship.She wenton to play three varsity sports in college,two ofthem during the same season. The only goal that has eluded Hasselbring may be her biggest.She wants to be an astronaut. One ofabout 1,600 teachers who applied to NASA to become an astronaut,she made the top 100 list but missed the final cut. But Hasselbring did get to experience the next best thing.She was one of240 teachers nationwide chosen to participate in a weightless flight last month aboard a Boeing 727.Her crew of35 that flew out ofCleveland included 25 teachers.Only five such flights took place throughout the country. "NASA is concerned about replacing their work force:' she explained."They want to inspire that next generation through teachers in space." Her plane took 16 dives causing various degrees of weightlessness,each lasting about 30 seconds. Hasselbring brought along a camera to document her weightless flight but never got around to taking any pictures because she was having so much fun. "Your brain is just thinking about having fun,testing things you don't ever get to test,"she said."It breaks physical laws that you think should be true.You feel no bounds to the ground below you.Your brain starts thinking,'Whatin the world is going on?" She said a couple ofthe teachers got sick,"but they gave us a pill that they suggested we take and I felt great the whole time. It's hard to tell which way is up and down. I got turned around before I realized this was not the ceiling, it was the floor. It's such a strange feeling.We 18 Winter 2006 Milan teacher and coach Cindy Hasselbring participates in a weightless airplane ride in September with fellow teacher Russ Billings. actually were throwing things back and forth to see how they would react." She came to realize how much we take gravity for granted. "Eleven ofthe(16)parabolas created no gravity,which is floating,"she said."It's a normal plane,except there are almost no seats. Between parabolas,we had to lay down to prevent nauseousness.When the plane is in freefall, you experience 1.8 times your body weight at the bottom ofyour parabola:' She said she felt like a real astronaut when she walked to the launch pad with her crew,all ofthem wearing space suits with the American flag. That(walking to a real space flight) to me would be like winning an Olympic gold medal:'she said. Hasselbring attended a training workshop in late August.She was given a flight suit and was excited to learn that she got to keep it. "I love it. It's so comfortable,I would wear it all the time,"she said."It has a long zipper,adjustable straps and lots ofpockets.I wore the flight suit to school that next day.I wanted to wear it to church,but I didn't.The kids thought I looked cute in the suit. "The kids are interested in my NASA stuff. They're fascinated by my NASA stories. It becomes a really good teaching window.They actually watched a video tape